Wordsmith-commissar

Marlan Padayachee Media Clients in South Africa

2012-01-24T19:23:00.000-08:00

Amichand Rajbansi, What Legacy? Asks Marlan Padayachee

2012-01-17T19:04:00.000-08:00

Legacy, what legacy? Asks Marlan Padayachee, one of the journalists who bore the brunt of Amichand Rajbansi’s vitriolic verbal attacks on scribes who reported on controversies and issues that did not go his way.
The Sunday Tribune’s coverage of the death and funeral of Amichand Rajbansi was excellent, touching on even the funeral snub by his estranged, divorced wife, and chronicling the new year’s eve departure of one of South Africa’s most controversial politicians with strong images.
However, the headline, ‘Tiger’s Legacy Burns Bright’, possibly inspired by an ode to William Blake’s ‘Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright’, has left me searching for answers: Legacy, what legacy did Rajbansi leave behind?
Dennis Pather, respected Niemen Fellow journalist and activist, who walked with iconic anti-system antagonists, Strini Moodley, Saths Coopers, Aubrey Mokoape, and other Black Consciousness adherents, all of whom had virulently opposed system politicians, like the Rajbansis, Rajabs, Reddys, Mangopes, Qozas, Hendrickse, et al, relied on his own experiences before penning his no-holds barred piece on the man who was both hated with disdain and loved with religious fervour by the Indian community, Pather dished out the brickbats and bouquets in one script.
But nowhere did Pather mention the word ‘legacy’.
Legacy is ‘something handed down or received from an ancestor or predecessor’.
Could Rajbansi’s political legacy have spawned an ethnic party for Indians who fought for freedom, human dignity and social justice alongside black compatriots in the ‘congress movement’, while striving to assimilate the spirit of nationhood, nonracialism and non-sexism in a new nation? Or did this legacy separate Indians from the mainstream of our democratic society?
Legacy also means ‘a gift by will, especially of money or personal property’.
Did Rajbansi not help the poor, working-class Indian electorate and dispossessed traders , and thereby helped himself to a legacy of a multi-million rand trust, service stations, and other businesses, when many Group Areas Act victims knocked on his door for compensation?
Surely, the legacy of the 1860 Indian indentured labourers, by their own collective action against oppression, must have inspired migrant Indians and compatriots and comrades to inculcate a strong sense of seeking justice and human rights; a legacy of doing a dint of hard work to survive the discriminatory laws; of self-education; of community-spiritedness; of volunteerism and Ubuntu; of fighting on the side of the voiceless and vote less for the liberation of our country.
Years after the darkest hours of slave-like conditions on the sugar cane plantations and the economic jealousy by colonialists of the Indian trading class, MK Gandhi emerged as a voice of hope for the disenfranchised masses. He left behind a legacy of cordial co-existence between Indians and Africans, and a rich and enviable history of Indians in liberation politics.
The conservative Pather-Kajee Pact and their successive ilk of ‘system’ political opportunists flew in the face of the pioneering Indians like Yusuf Dadoo, Monty Naicker, Kesaveloo Goonum, Amina Cachalia, Billy Nair, Ismail and Fathima Meer, and countless others, who collectively stood firm in protecting Indians from selling out to the National Party’s Tricameral Parliament (drie-kamer) elections that only garnered 12% of the ethnic vote. Coloured votes also put them into bed with the Nats.
Rajbansi worked his way to the top of ‘system’ politics, trampling all dissident voices and political ambitions and aspirations of his fellow travellers in the apartheid laager, leaving behind ‘the cock-eyed is the king of the blind’ legacy, coercing and threatening Indian civil servants to toe the line or face the consequences of losing their jobs.
He left a legacy of political patronage. Opportunistic Indians took the gap and enriched themselves or benefited from perks from his fiefdom, the House of Delegates. Hardline Indians bore the brunt of his vicious public attacks. He was often exploiting the newspaper columns to savagely attack the credibility of anti-apartheid leaders and activists.
Even in the drama of the transition from apartheid to democracy, The Raj masterminded the art of ingratiating himself with the newly-crowned ANC masters, selling out his Indian-bloc vote (mainly from working class Indians marginalized by the ANC’s affirmative action jobs reservation policy) to the ANC in a horse-trading deal that secured him the dream of being MEC for Sports. The hardliners among previously persecuted Indian activists hardened, sparking the drift and dissension away from the black ruling elite.
Rajbansi gave the ANC the edge to rule the province, but after he was discarded from the cabinet, the ‘cat with nine lives’ sulked and became the ANC’s arch-critic.
Rajbansi left a legacy of collaborationist politics. His was hardly a clear ideological platform, making it now difficult for the Minority Front to navigate the provincial political landscape, leave alone the robust affairs at the eThekwini Municipality: even while the majority vote was fait accompli to elect the Communist Party’s James Nxumalo as mayor, and Rajbansi’s nemesis Logie Naidoo as the Speaker, the ‘Bengal Tiger’ snarled from the sidelines of the city hall, lobbying and nudging his councillors to play politics with their votes.
Above this chequered career, the ‘Bengal Tiger’ blew hot and cold within the media. He unleashed verbal tirades on brave journalists and rewarded others, like putting in a good word with the Broederbond-controlled SABC for sympathetic scribes to move up the ladder.
Always on the warpath with words, he played a cunning game between editors and reporters, playing one against each other and creating distrust in the newsrooms. He went for the jugular of offending journalists, as illustrated in Greg Arde’s column, ‘Ah, the Tiger roars eternal: I’ll never forget that slap’. In the same breath, he charmed editors as a celebrated complainant, but dangled news tip-offs and government ad spend in favour of good publicity, especially published photographs.
As a rookie reporter in the 1970s, I earned the wrath of the burgeoning bulldog of ethnic politics: namely, for reflecting in a street survey that revealed Rajbansi was trading on Gandhi’s legacy when he called for Satyagraha (non-violent protest) against apartheid. In the turbulent years ahead, his anger and irritation grew and grew over a string of reports: his children ensconced at private schools during the schools boycott; shambolic affairs of the goings-on at the tricameral chamber; AWB leader Eugene Terre Blanche dislodging his toupee after slapping him on the face during the ANC’s détente with the Nats; and his divorce showdown with his wife outside the courthouse.
But if that’s all in a line of duty, so be it. However, I doffed my beret at his unofficial presence during President Mandela’s state visit to India; attended his colourful marriage to MPP Shameen Thakur and exchanged courtesies at the Twenty-Twenty cricket series.
The twilight days was setting in. The jungle was no longer burning bright for the mellowing, yet unforgiving ‘Bengal Tiger’.
Politics will never be the same again without his Jekyll and Hyde persona.
I believe in an ancient mantra, ‘it’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness’. Hamba Kahle, Mr Leveller.
Marlan Padayachee is a former political correspondent and anti-apartheid activist and works as a media strategist and political commentator

‘You stole my work’

2011-12-29T02:42:00.000-08:00

‘You stole my work’
JOURNALIST SUES CULTURAL LEADER FOR R500 000
CANDICE SOOBRAMONEY
Published in the front-page of POST December 28-January 1 2012 (South Africa)
A JOURNALIST is suing respected community leader TP Naidoo for half a million rands.
Marlan Padayachee, currently a media and communications strategist, claims Naidoo plagiarised his work.
Naidoo is the director of the Indian Academy of South Africa and has played an active role in promoting Indian culture in South Africa. Last year he authored the book The Settler: Tribulations, Trials and Triumph. It was published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Indians coming to South Africa.
It included a series titled The 1946 Resisters.
Padayachee claims he wrote the series but Naidoo failed to acknowledge his contribution.
He has now filed papers in the Durban Magistrate’s Court claiming half a million rands.
Padayachee said from 1988 to 2004 he assisted Naidoo in compiling and contributing stories and profiles on community icons for the publication The Indian Annual. Until then he had complaints about working with Naidoo.
In 2009 he approached Naidoo with a proposal.
“I told him I was putting together a series of updated and rewritten articles, which previously appeared in the e Indian Annual, on the 1946 series. It was accepted for the 2010 special edition and I was subsequently paid R3 000.”
After the book The Settler was launched Padayachee realized Naidoo had taken credit for an interview he (Padayachee) did with South African anti-apartheid activist Yusuf Dadoo in London in 1983.
According to Padayachee the (then) Argus newspaper group assigned him to cover the three-day conference in London on United Nations’ sanctions against South African sport.
While there he conducted interviews with freedom fighters including Dadoo, who at that stage was in exile.
When he returned home he wrote a series of articles for the Sunday Tribune.
At a later stage some of them were rewritten, updated and published in The Indian Annual.
“I had not seen the draft (of The Settler) and was surprised when I realized I was not rightfully credited.
“Naidoo is not a journalist and was never in London in 1983. He was in Durban. I couldn’t and still cannot understand why he took credit for my work when it was previously published in The Indian Annual and I was credited for it.”
Padayachee consulted attorney Siven Samuel and served summons.
He demanded R500 000 in lieu of Naidoo’s failure to acknowledge his work.
This was followed by a second summons this month.
Padayachee said Naidoo believed the proprietorship of any article that appeared in The Indian Annual belonged to the Indian Academy of which he is the Editor.
“But he cannot claim credit for another professional’s work. He is well aware that each of the stories I submitted over the years had my copyright> then by adding his name to the Dadoo story, he erroneously gave the impression he wrote the entire series.
“I will not stand for that. He has committed plagiarism and political fraud.”
Asked if this could have been an oversight on Naidoo’s part, Padayachee remarked: “This is no oversight. He wanted credit for himself.”
Padayachee said he was writing a book on his journalistic career and feared other writers and historians would dispute his information, which Naidoo staked claim to.
“I will not allow this to go unchecked. If he continues to publish further editions of my work, he will continue to abuse my intellectual property and history will record it as that.”
Naidoo’s daughter said her father did not want to comment.

Published in Durban by Post newspaper at Independent Newspaper KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, on the 28th December 2011. Copyright Post/INKZN.

‘You stole my work’

2011-12-29T02:39:00.000-08:00

Q&A With Mayor James Nxumalo by Marlan Padayachee

2011-12-23T07:19:00.001-08:00

Q&A
From Mayor-elect, His Worship, Councillor James Nxumalo
1 JAMES SIKHOSIPHI NXUMALO, 46-year-old.
2 I prefer to call all the residents, the citizens of our city. Citizens may be unaware that my activist-political career that has brought to the pinnacle of city hall was actually defined by the deplorable and appalling conditions labourers worked at a big-brand chicken factory. I am a trade unionist at heart. We were a lost generation and opportunities were limited. However, I would have loved to strum the guitar like George Benson or played the trumpet like Bra Hugh Masekela. I am passionate about jazz music as the people I serve. I seek solitude in soul, rhythm and blues and jazz music and seldom end a long day without watching the breaking news and popular programmes on television. If time permits, I would like to don a white martial arts suit and practice karate to gain a balance in my impending hectic schedule as the first citizen of Durban.
3 I have an appetite for traditional food, handed down by the mothers of the Zulu nation over generations of our long history and legacy in KwaZulu-Natal. But, I will not say no to the city’s favourite cuisine, the piping-hot curry in the traditional bunny-chow that has made Durban globally famous export. My popular eating house is the Spur for juicy steaks and chips and Café Fish for a harbour view lunch of seafood. I can cook up a storm with a boiled eggs dish.
4 I am very patriotic to my city and spend quality time at the world-ranked Ushaka Marine World with my family; and we shop at the Pavilion and the Gateway because the buzz at these big malls is a microcosm of our drive for economic energy and growth.
5 I recall without bitterness my disadvantaged boyhood working hard as a gardener in Westville during weekends and school holidays. I enjoyed playing football at school level.
6 Durban’s temperate, warm weather conditions, and the multicultural vibrancy of all our people who have given new meaning to the ancient African philosophy of Ubuntu (I am because of you).The city’s cosmopolitan image and nonracial mix inspires me to go the extra mile.
7 I read William Shakespeare and its timeless tales of humanity. Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom is my reference book. I am an avid listener of radio stations that talk to the masses, such as Ukhosi FM, Metro FM, Gagasi FM, the lively debates on SAfm and PMlive, and the SABC radio jazz programmes.
8 I will remain loyal to the city’s 2020 Vision to ensure that Durban achieves the African Dream by emerging as the best African city on the continent. Our cultural diversity and cross-flow of cultures and traditions makes us unique as one of the potentially progressive cities along the Indian Ocean Rim and a city that can compete in the world rankings as one of the most non-racial metropolitans of the 21st century. I would like to see all our citizens from diverse backgrounds and demographics coming together in social harmony and unity and reinforcing the spirit of our slogan, ‘One City, Many Cultures’. I would like to see much more meaningful changes in the way we do business and how we fast-track our second economy among the street-traders, vendors and small enterprises that is best epitomized within the city city and the revamped Warwick Avenue Triangle commuter and trading landmark.
9 I am getting there soon. The technological revolution is catching up with us and our information and communication technology hub at the Smartxchange is a testimony of Durban’s appetite to navigate the world’s information highway. It will be a policy decision by the city at a council meeting to consider introducing IT solutions such as Tweeting and Face book for our councilors to interact with communities and constituencies. Just watch this space.
10 Growing up in the tranquility of the rolling, green hills of Inchanga, I am a ‘berg’ person and love the heritage site of the Drakensberg Mountain where the spirit and sketches of the San people live in the caves of the rock art. Durban’s golden beaches energise me into action. I love the treasure trove of KZN’s game reserves and the Valley of a Thousand Hills is my favourite destination to switch off and enjoy my family.
11 Soccer reigns supreme in my past-time, and I spend as much time as possible watching local and international football, followed by rugby, cricket, tennis and boxing. I play soccer and practised karate as a teenager, but guess I will have to keep fit and will be kitting out soon in my soccer strip and karate suit.
12 The late anti-apartheid leader Harry Gwala who sacrificed his life on Robben Island like many of the freedom fighters. He was my inspiration and mentor who taught the values of being people-centred, loyal and honest.
13 My morning breaks early. I enjoy a cuppa of rooibos tea, black no sugar or sweeteners. I reply to all SMSes. I ferry my children to their schools, and head straight for my office around 8am. I am surrounded by loyal personal assistants who brief me about my day’s schedule, appointments and invitations for speaking and community engagements. I then switch on my personal computer and read my emails before reading the headlines and stories of the day in the English and isiZulu language newspapers.
14 I always wanted to be a lawyer, championing the defenceless and the helpless in courts. But I cut my political teeth as a youth activist and trade union organizer and hence a career in politics in a historic time-frame.
15 Humility, Charm and Good Listening.
16 Difficult to make public, but I get irritated, frustrated and disappointed with shoddiness, laziness and people who don’t respect time and are oblivious of our people’s cultural dynamics.
17 Under my watch, I want to leave a legacy of a mayoral leadership that will take the baton of my predecessors and transform Durban into Africa’s most viable, accessible, economically prosperous and socially stimulating Indian Ocean gateway city into the rest of Africa. I will strive for the neighbouring Southern African Development Community cities being the first port of call for our socio-economic drive that will literally change the lives and livelihoods of all our citizens, including citizens who were previously economically elbowed under apartheid, and the African migrants who live and work in Durban in a post-apartheid democracy. We will make our sister-city relationship with African cities work wonders and Durban must become the world’s most non-racial and non-sexist city.
18 My leadership style will be as accessible as a phone call away, if the municipal protocol allows it. All our citizens, constituencies and communities must be assured that my doors will always be open and I will be accessible to all the people, visitors, delegations, organisations that make up the multicultural tapestry of the City of Durban. I will continue to attend meetings in all communities that occupy the urban, peri-urban and rural spaces of our 100 kilometre city limits and jurisdiction. My well-rounded mayoral team is gearing to meet these challenges with civic courtesy, homegrown hospitality, world-class protocol, the culture customer care and friendliness in the city’s spirit of the letter of Batho Pele, Putting People First.
19 Since joining the new order at the city hall as a councilor and then as a Speaker of the 200-member, politically and culturally diverse city council, I have been at the coalface of the communities and constituencies the councilors serve, some under very difficult terrains and conditions, socio-economically speaking, and I would be the first to lead as the First Citizen to place communication as the key priority in how the new and the re-elected councilors engage the community with service delivery being their most important mission when they serve the new-look city council over the next five years.
20 My message focuses on a clarion call to all our citizens, regardless of race, culture, creed, colour or economic class or status, and including all spheres of business, non-governmental organisations and community-based formations, is to put the interest of Durban and its people, first and foremost, by working together in unity and social cohesion to meet the challenges of job-creation, housing for all, poverty eradication and a quest for a safer city, with progressive greening commitment ahead of Durban hosting the COP 17 Climate Change conference.
Ends

COP 17 Letter by Marlan Padayachee December 2011

2011-12-23T07:02:00.000-08:00

COP 17 Letter by Marlan Padayachee December 2011

AMID all the high drama, dissents, debates, discourses at the Durban COP 17 Climate Change conference, including a strong comeback to the frontline and fringes by civil society, non-governmental groups and young and old activists, it is hoped that the ‘Durban Protocol’ will give birth to a powerful commitment for a broader, worldwide movement to encourage people to get involved in green politics, issues, development and socio-economic sustainability. Within this context of the diverse landscape of this COP 17, let me share a perennial Native-American quote to inspire how we can navigate the future: : “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
MARLAN PADAYACHEE, via email
Durban-Westville

Letters to the City Hall - Speeches by Marlan Padayachee for the Office of the Mayor Durban-eThekwini Municipality South Africa

2011-12-23T06:19:00.000-08:00

By Marlan Padayachee

POST PRESENTATION PAPER AND REPORT-BACK DOCUMENT TO THE INDIAN CONSUL-GENERAL, HIS EXCELLENCY, MR ANIL SHARAN, ON THE OCCASION OF THE PARTICIPATION AT THE PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIVAS IN NEW DELHI, INDIA, 7-9 JANUARY 2011, BY COUNCILLOR FAWZIA PEER
CITY COUNCLLOR AND CHIEF WHIP OF THE ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY, CITY OF DURBAN, REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

26TH January 2011

The Honourable Mr Anil Sharan
Consul-General
Government of India
City of Durban
Republic of South Africa

Dear Mr Sharan,

On behalf of the eThekwini Municipality and the people of the City of Durban, I extend our traditional greetings of Assalamu Alaikum, Vannakam, Namaste, Namaskarumu, Sawubona, Saniboni, and Molweni.
I also take this opportunity of conveying our felicitations and compliments of the season for the New Year to you, your family and your colleagues in the consular staff at the Durban Consulate of the Government of India.
This communiqué serves to confirm and record my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to you and your colleagues in the Government of India in New Delhi for the heartwarming hospitality, courtesy and high levels of protocol that was accorded to me in my capacity as the Chief Whip representing the Mayor of Durban, His Worship, Councillor Obed Mlaba, the eThekwini Municipality and the citizens of Durban during my participation at the 8th annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas held recently in the capital city of the world’s largest democracy.

I also convey the similar sentiments and gratitude of my husband, Dr Peer, who had thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated pukka Indian hospitality.

I humbly salute you for your personal role and responsibility in ensuring that our visit to your ancient land of cultures and cuisines, and our attendance at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, was made all the more special and extraordinary through a programme of homemade hospitality and the humaneness of your peace-loving compatriots.

I was most heartened and delighted by the overall high standard of reception we had received in what will go down as one of our most memorable visits in recent years.

I was therefore most pleased to have represented our city and municipality at the Pravasi Bharitaya Divas, which provided some fascinating insights about the power of partnerships and the social networking of Indian communities living and working in diverse countries around the world, and yet all of us of Indian origin were sentimentally drawn to the magnetism of the beauty and splendor of India.

Furthermore, I was impressed by the amazing spirit of humanity and goodwill that prevailed over the symbolic meeting that brought together some of the most remarkable examples of Indians who have made spectacular strides in their field of business and expertise outside their motherland.

It was encouraging to note that both our countries share a common legacy of having being inspired by the teachings, principles, ethics, integrity and wisdom of one of the world’s iconic pacifists and peace gurus, the legendary Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, in our respective quest for freedom, human dignity, social justice and economic empowerment.

I was therefore particularly thrilled to have been part of a celebration that paid homage to the arrival of Gandhiji in India after having spent 21 years in South Africa, where he had helped to shape our political resistance to colonial-apartheid’s autocratic rule over the indigenous people of my country, including the 1860 Indian indentured labourers who faced the same racial and human rights discrimination meted out to our African, Coloured and Chinese compatriots.

Reflecting on my personal experience and interaction with fellow delegates at this world platform of Indians, I am therefore pleased that droves of South Africans of Indian origin have continued to attend the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas ever since the inaugural gathering of people of Indian origin took place in New Delhi in 2003.

I am overwhelmed that there has always been a strong participation by many of our leaders, entrepreneurs, academic, religious and cultural personalties, in the main, from Durban to this prestigious conference.

The high quality of the speakers and presenters and the diverse range of topics and themes have provided invaluable insights for me to ensure that Pravasi Bharatiya Divas will always enjoy the full support and goodwill of our municipality and citizens.

The collective pool of the knowledge economy and the human resources capital from the diverse delegations will certainly serve not only to guide the high standards of future conferences, but also contributes as communication tools, templates, texts and referencing point for a myriad of topics and themes that makes up the three-day programme of debates and discourses centred on the future and wellbeing of Indians.
We therefore owe a debt of gratitude to the visionaries behind the LM Singhvi Committee on the Indian Diaspora for having pioneered this celebration of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas as a global gathering of Indians while honouring the priceless life’s work of Gandhiji on the 9th of January each year.

This conference is unique, in that it may be the only gathering of nationals and expatriates that come together on a prestige platform and programme that recognizes the contributions of individuals of Indian origin who are honoured for exceptional merit and outstanding achievement in their field and profession.

The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards ceremony also serves as a classic example of how a nation can truly recognise and honour its nationals at home or abroad.
Developing democracies like South Africa can also learn from the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas that also focuses on issues and concerns that people of the diaspora face in their adopted countries, and how this programme of discourse and debate motivates people of Indian origin to assimilate to the local conditions on a socio-economic and political levels of their host adopted countries while maintaining strong linkages with India without losing touch with their motherland.
The high-level participation and support of the Government of India, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry further enhances the scope and uniqueness of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas as a broad-based social networking, business, cultural and investment facilitation platform for overseas Indians.
I am therefore impressed that an event of this high calibre, capacity and standard can only strengthen ties between India, the diaspora or non-resident communities and the people of Durban and South Africa as we embark on a journey to turn our regions into the new frontiers of economic growth, social cohesion and political stability.

Within this context, it is encouraging to note that that Durban enjoys a twinning sister-city relationship with Mumbai, and until recently the City of Chennai. It is matter of time before we embark on linking Durban to Delhi, thereby making this famous and historic host city our next port of call in our ongoing, cordial social, economic and political relations between the citizens of Durban and the people of these major Indian cities and India as a whole.

I had certainly left the conference, and as well as the culturally-enhancing melting pot that symbolizes all that is India, a much wiser and inspired visitor, delegate and friend of the people of India.

Outside the conference, we were accorded a right royal reception by support staff that ensured that the comfort and convenience of visit was not going to be compromised right down to the finest details.

The services of a professional and knowledgeable chauffeur further served to accentuate our personal joy of savouring sumptuous cuisines, old-fashioned courtesy and protocol that Indians excel in as our trip transformed into a home-from-home experience of note.

I must compliment you and the support team for the choice of superb and splendid hotels that made our stay most pleasant and unforgettable, for which we are truly grateful and thankful for.

India is a vast spectrum of cultures and a land of a multitude of languages and dialects, and our interaction with the local people brings home our attention to the importance of mother languages in India and the Indian Diaspora and the revival of ancestral languages.
The sights and sounds of India today, its beliefs and physical and economic landscapes further enriched our exploits of some of breathtaking sight-seeing landmarks.

We were taken into the labyrinthine world of Delhi’s old and the new metropolis, and other surrounding towns and villages, where some of the secrets and riches of incredible India reside.

Our sight-seeing programme was a breathtaking experience, further revealing the ancient secrets and romanticism of India. We were particularly awestruck by the majestic beauty and magnificence of the Akshardham Hindu temple complex in Delhi.

The Swaminarayan Akshardham is one of the wonders that are a repository for traditional Indian and Hindu culture, spirituality, and architecture.
We were enchanted to learn about how culture of Gandhian-inspired volunteerism involving 3 000 men and women who gave their labour of love to help 7 000 artisans to construct this holy shrine that stands as a lasting legacy to Pramukh Swami Maharaj, spiritual head of the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, whose footprints are etched in a temple in London.
As a representative of a multicultural city, the tourism dimension of this holy place of worship will certainly encourage Durban to further enhance our catalogue of ancient temples, churches and synagogues that stand side by side in our local landscape.
Crafted wholly of stone, the central monument highlights the life and times of Swaminarayan and the timeless mystique of India, and beautifully enhanced by a musical fountain and landscaped gardens would surely rate as an ‘out of the world’ spectacle.
Another highlight deserves mentioning is our visit to the Kingdom of Dreams and our sheer joy and excitement at the extravagant offerings of the theme-based entertainment experiences that brought to life India’s cultural diversity, and an ambitious architectural project that blends a choreography of traditional Indian performing arts, entertainment and cultural heritage.

Durban could learn lessons from India’s portfolio of tourism landmarks and we are encouraged by the potential to open a gateway for South Africans to visit the treasure troves of an ancient civilization steeped in tradition, culture, hospitality and humanity.

In the final analysis, India’s humanity and humility left me humbled, but inspired to spread the word of a democracy where peace, respect and tolerance reign supreme, and work harder towards sharing the knowledge and experience gained at the conference with my fellow colleagues, compatriots and comrades as we prepare for another milestone in our developing democracy, the 2011 local government elections in a few month’s time.

Once again, we are eternally grateful to you and the Government of India for blessing our passage to India with your friendship, grace and charm.

We thank you.

Yours sincerely
Councillor Fawzia Peer

Hong Kong Delegation in South Africa

2011-12-23T06:08:00.001-08:00

By Marlan Padayachee

HONG KONG FINANCIAL SECRETARY HEADS TOP TRADE DELEGATION TO SOUTH AFRICA 4-11 DECEMBER 2011
TRADE and business relations between South Africa and Hong Kong is expected to be strengthened enormously when the Government of the Hong Kong Special Representative Region’s Financial Secretary, Mr John Chun-wah Tsang, heads a top-flight delegation of more than 50 corporate and business leaders and chambers of commerce and various financial, industrial and professional organisations to Johannesburg and other parts of the country from the 4-11 December 2011.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is scheduled to meet the Hong Kong delegation.
Hong Kong, highly ranked as a financial and economic gateway point into Asia, changed political and administrative hands from Britain to the People’s Republic of China in 1997.
Local hosts say the new trading culture with the strategically-positioned sovereign city-state should be hailed within the context of the burgeoning BRICS economic partnership bloc between Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa becoming part of this advancing economic cluster despite its tiny economy and population of under 50 million people.
Mr Rajen Pillay, South Africa’s Country Entry Strategist and Foreign Investment Adviser, said the high-level Hong King delegation would be particularly attracted to do business with established and emerging entrepreneurs within South Africa’s socio-economic diversity that continues to change the economic and business landscape since South Africa’s transition to democracy. A delegation headed by a Financial Secretary last visited South Africa in 1999.
Apart from a busy schedule of meetings and get-togethers, the delegation will be hosted by Mr Pillay’s Garuda Finance (Pty) Limited and Norma Xabiso Majokweni, chief executive officer of Business Unity South Africa, at a cocktail networking event in Sandton on Tuesday, 6 December 2011 at 5.30pm.
“South African entrepreneurs and businesses across the demographic and gender spectrum would have a rare opportunity of networking, engaging and doing business with a diverse range of businesses and professional organisations. The involvement of Business Unity South Africa makes the international networking platform much more meaningful and focused to give our businesses insights into how one of the most successful financial hubs and global landmarks operates within its own cultural diversity,” said Pillay.
“Hong Kong, as one of China’s two Special Administrative Regions, provides an excellent platform to play a very important role as gateway for South Africa into the Asian sub-continent. This is the awakening of a refreshing, new economic dawn for our entrepreneurs too push back the frontiers of doing big business under the banner of the BRICS umbrella,” added Norma Xabiso Majokweni, Business Unity South Africa’s CEO.
Among the prominent personalities on the delegation are Margaret Fong, deputy director of Hong Kong Trade and Development Council, her colleague Stephen Wong of the Middle East and Africa desk, Eddy Fong, chairman of Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, Hye Cheng Cheah, chairman of Value Partners, Robin Lee, group chairman and CEO of SSC Mandarin Group, Kenny Lee, chairman of Chinese Academy of Governance, Gui Xian Wei, Alternate Chief Executive of the China Development Bank Corporation (Hong Kong), Junius Ho, President Law Society of Hong Kong, Philip Tsai, President of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Chit Sun Cheong, Executive Director China State Construction International Holdings Limited, Otto Poon, President of the Hong Kong Federation of Electrical and Mechanical Contractors Limited, and several other influential delegates.
Ends

For Media Interviews and Photo Opportunities, contact Marlan Padayachee, media strategist and publicist on behalf of Rajen Pillay and AfroAsian Capital Garuda Finance (Pty) Limited and Business Unity South Africa, on the following contact details:
Email: marlan.padayachee@mtn.blackberrry.com/ marlan.padayachee@gmail.com
Phone: + 00 27 31 266 2134 / 266 4293 (all hours)
Mobile: 073 625 8247/ 084 519 5931
Personal Assistants: Pinky Naidoo & Sally Nene: 078 076 8121

umAfrika Skills Project - the route to short courses

2011-12-16T21:09:00.000-08:00

umAfrika Project Specialist

QUOTE: “When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.” – William A Ward.

Umafrika Project Specialists – A Model For Community Outreach Education As A Unique Platform For Advanced, Short Courses, Workshop-Based Training Programme To Complement South Africa’s Critical And Scarce Skills Development And Training Challenges.

WITHIN South Africa’s transforming education terrain, a homegrown education and skills development and training agency, umAfrika Project Specialists, housed in the historic ML Sultan Campus of the Durban University of Technology, is providing short courses for students and school-leavers to get a foothold in a competitive job market.

umAfrika is a community-driven Training Service Provider with innovative workshop programmes.

Founded by Ann Sewlal eight years ago, umAfrika continues to turn unskilled youth around, year in and year out, culminating in the annual graduation ceremony at the DUT’s Hotel School days after the Day of Reconciliation on 16 December.

Sewlal says the ‘the enabling and empowering environment of the campus city’s university’ has provided a niche for umAfrika to deliver basic skills training, learnership training and development for a broader corp of young people from economically marginalised and disadvantaged communities in the Greater Durban Region.

“umAfrika aims to become a model for Community Outreach Education as a unique platform for Advanced, Short Courses, Workshop-Based Training Programme in its quest to complement South Africa’s critical and scarce skills development pipeline and training challenges,” added Sewlal, the agency’s director.

Each year, umAfrika and its dedicated team leaders and service providers deliver turnkey solutions and knowledge economy to upskill and mentor young people for the reality check in the job market and marketplace.

Ahead of umAfrika’s tenth anniversary in 2013, Sewlal says a single historical event, South Africa’s dramatic transformation from an apartheid-based society to a democratic state, had propelled Sewlal to quit the comfort zone of a corporate job to launch a women-empowered skills development and training agency, aimed at upskilling African, Indian, Coloured, Chinese and other minority communities that were marginalied in the apartheid society.

Strategically located within the Abdul Hamed Building at the landmark ML Sultan Campus which provided technical education for disadvantaged communities, umAfrika provides easy access to post-school students, undergraduates and career candidates.

Despite the progress of a democratic country, millions of South Africans are still denied rudimentary services, like piped water, electricity, sanitation and sewerage system. In a post-apartheid environment, school children attend classes in wattle and daub and non-electrified schools, serviced by water tanks and bore holes that dot the rural landscapes: “These depressing conditions, coupled with rampant unemployment and grinding poverty, stymie the education growth and development of our young citizens who we should be nurturing and mentoring as future leaders,” added Sewlal.

However, government continues to redress the socio-economic imbalances and inequities of the old country, promoting a ‘developmental state’ concept of encouraging private-sector capacity to support the public-sector platform of realigning all spheres of social and economic activities in the new nation.

South Africa is still battling with high levels of illiteracy and scarce skills among disadvantaged communities.

umAfrika has identified this deficiency that continues to deny communities of their God-given right to education.

“umAfrika believes it is contributing to the skills shortage pipeline by training and retraining our youth and graduates. We support the culture of education in the formal and informal sectors that has earmarked community involvement as a cornerstone in the areas of teaching, research and skills development and training and applying these theoretical and practical inputs and outputs to the issues that are becoming increasingly relevant to the community at large.

“We believe the emergence of umAfrika has filled a necessary gap in providing subsidized training programmes, including training, examinations and certificates, free of charge.”

umAfrika specialises and focuses in offering streamlined and practical short courses for duration of 3-6 months to a year, in these skill shortage areas:
Computers;
Information Technology;
New Media – internet, emails and social networking;
Entrepreneurship;
Women and Youth in Business;
Black Empowerment Opportunities;
Business Management and Consulting;
Office Administration;
Call Centre Business Networking;
Communications;
Marketing;
Project Management;
Business Law;
Globalisation;
Quality Management;
Production Management;
Human Resources;
HIV and AIDS;

Ends

ABOUT UMAFRIKA

umAfrika’s education and skills development and training programme is based on extensive research in South African and international experiences.

umAfrika’s examinations are co-ordinated and supervised on an ongoing basis, aimed at directly conceptualizing and formulating issues according to the reality check of the possibilities and options available, especially to the disadvantaged, rural and disabled citizens and student population.

umAfrika is guided in its task by:

International and National provisions allocated towards the upliftment of skills development in our country.
Continual research and development undergoing towards what is immediately required for the upliftment of communities.
Integrating of International experience within our local framework, particularly in the development of candidates in accordance to our nations needs.
Design policies and programmes that will assist in developing and accomplishing the Vision and Mission statements of umAfrika.

umAfrika’s success could be attributed to a higher level of grassroots community involvement:

Projects consist of the construction of low-cost housing, schools, libraries, community halls, roads, clinics, IT Training, HIV Training, Leadership and Motivation courses; and viable and future start-up of Call Centres incorporating Help Desk facilities.

In addition, umAfrika focuses on the stimulation of economic development and community empowerment through interventions such as relevant training schemes and focus on Small, Micro and Medium Enterprise (SMME) development and training.

The development of all projects incorporates the need to redress social injustices and promote black economic empowerment.

umAfrika is responsible for providing redevelopment and training. The agency engages strategic partners, like securing funding from the European Union, international education and training donor organisations, local, provincial and central government, and other funding and humanitarian aid agencies, locally and internationally.

umAfrika has developed IT Training and Business Studies programmes and has created a synergy to complement products and services suited to the common skills needed.

Says founding-director AnnSewlal: “Our human capital, our people, is our key strength in developing umAfrika into a local and national model for community outreach education at grassroots level.

“We select and nurture the best to create an awesome base of expertise and talent. Our wide footprint of embedded knowledge based on international accreditation covering all faculties extensively.”

umAfrika appears to be the open-door for candidates requiring training and skills development towards achieving a variety of skills, like a recent weekend workshop for computer training attracted 250 candidates, thereby revealing the ‘desperate need’ by young people to upskill themselves in computers and information technology.

Majority of the candidates hail from the INK cluster (Inanda, Newtown and Kwa-Mashu), a depressed job market pinpointed by Durban’s eThekwini Municipality for major economic development, and the inner-city suburbs, Phoenix, Canelands, Amaoti, Chatsworth, Lamontville, Isipingo, Umlazi and other areas.

Ends

umAfrika’s Core Vision and Mission

To employ and train previously disadvantaged throughout the country and to equip them with a competent level of a skill that will interact both theoretically and practically.
To enhance their chances of entering the working world and living their dreams.
To eliminate poverty, crime, violence by ongoing participation of outlined workshops.
To focus on gender and to ensure that equality is given.
To focus on people with disabilities on how to provide a workable environment, protecting against discrimination and any violation to human rights.
Transform candidates to adapt to the different cultural background of individuals within the workplace.
Promote globalization as it opens up possibilities for the improvement of life for the poor people, and the disabled.
Strategise to transform all faculties and departments both on a local and a corporate level.
To conduct ongoing (SWOT) analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

umAfrika will endeavour to:

Provide essential tools and resources for the upliftment of socio-economic development within our country.
Provide regular workshops and skills development and training to create ongoing participation within the communities.
Provide transparent and accountable projects whereby candidates are able to have ongoing support and infrastructure.
Strive among all cultures to achieve equality, non racialism, gender equality, economic growth, social cohesion, peace and stability to enhance nation building.
To ensure the efficient and effective delivery of all services and the creation of a safe, healthy and comfortable training environment.
Adapt individuals with skills to operate with a multi-skilling approach to maximize benefit to both the company and the individual.
Adopt a strategic, creative and innovative approach to meet new and current challenges.
Be proactive in achieving social objectives and maximize economic development and job creation opportunities.
Contribute to and create co-operative and supportive relationships within the localized communities and businesses.
The unique layout of designing content course material to provide precise, workable turnkey solutions.
Strive for wider acceptance and accreditation of training course and programme locally and globally.

As a fully-fledged Black Economic Empowerment and Women-empowered agency, umAfrika will continue to add value to the formal and informal education by providing and sharing skills and knowledge aimed at achieving service excellence and supporting the critical skills developing sector.
Copyright

This publication has been produced by Marlan Padayachee GreenGold Africa Communications: greengold@mtnloaded.co.za/ marlan.padayachee@gmail.com/ Mobile: 073 625 8247/ 078 076 8121/ Durban 266 2134/ 266 4293.

COPYRIGHT 2011 Marlan Padayachee GreenGold Africa Communications. This material cannot be used, published or broadcasted without proper and prior consultation with the copyright licensee and holder. All inquiries regarding rights or concerns about this content should be directed to: Marlan Padayachee, email: greengold@mtnloaded.co.za; +00 27 31 266 2134 or 266 4293/ fax + 00 27 31 266 2134; Mobile: 073 625 8247/ 078 076 8121; Legal Advisors: Siven Samuel & Associates: South Africa; Karlen Padayachee (JD): Minneapolis, United States of America.

Don't Let Your CV End Up in File 13

2011-12-16T21:06:00.000-08:00

UMAFRIKA GRADUATION – SPEECH BY MARLAN PADAYACHEE, MANAGING PARTNER OF GREENGOLD AFRICA COMMUNICATIONS AT DURBAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY HOTEL SCHOOL 17.12.2011
THANK YOU, PROGRAMME DIRECTOR.
· ANN SEWLAL, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF UMAFRIKA SKILLS PROJECT.
· THE STAFF AND MANAGEMENT OF UMAFRIKA SKILLS PROJECT.
· COUNCILLOR DIANA HOORZUK, REPRESENTING THE SPEAKER OF THE DURBAN-ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY, COUNCILLOR LOGIE NAIDOO.
· ALL DISTINGUISHED DIGNITARIES, GUESTS, PARENTS AND MEMBERS OF THE DURBAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY.
· AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN OF THE MOMENT, THE STUDENTS WHO HAVE SUCCESSFULLY GRADUATED TO BECOME GRADUANDS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I AM HUMBLED AND HONOURED TO BE ADDRESSING YOU THIS AFTERNOON AS SOMEONE WHO LEARNT EARLY IN MY LIFE THAT ‘EDUCATION IS YOUR SALVATION’ AND ‘KNOWLEDGE IS POWER’ – THAT IS WHY I AM STANDING BEFORE YOU TO SHARE MY WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY WITH ALL OF YOU.
IF YOU LOOK TO YOUR LEFT AND RIGHT, YOU WILL NOTICE A GRADUATE NEXT SEATED NEXT TO YOU: YOUR PARENTS, GUARDIANS, GRANDPARENTS – ALL OF WHOM WORK TIRELESSLY TO ENSURE THAT YOU RECEIVE THE GIFT OF EDUCATION.
ALL OUR PARENTS DESERVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE AND SOME ACADEMIC ACCOLADES, AS WELL.
THAT’S WHY MANY OF US BELIEVE AND LIVE BY THE ANCIENT AFRICAN MANTRA, UBUNTU (HUMANKIND), WHICH MEANS IN ISIZULU OR INDIGENOUS AFRICAN LANGUAGES, ‘I AM BECAUSE OF YOU’.
THAT’S WHY WE ALSO SAY IN THE AFRICAN VERNACULAR: ‘IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD’.
WE MAY LIVE IN A COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT, WHERE PEOPLE ARE COMPETING FOR EACH OTHER FOR WEALTH, CASH, AND STATUS, AND DREAM FOR A GET-RICH-QUICK SCHEME .
THERE IS NO SHORT-CUT TO SUCCESS;
THERE IS NO SIDE ROAD TO ACCUMULATING WEALTH;
· THERE’S ONLY THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD TO SUCCESS AND ITS CALLED :
· HARD WORK;
· HONESTY;
· HUMILITY;
THE CERTIFICATE YOU ARE RECEIVING TODAY MOST TELL A STORY OF A DINT OF HARD WORK, HONESTY AND HUMILITY.
IF YOU PRESENT FALSE INFORMATION ON YOUR CURRICULUM VITAE, THEN YOUR CAREER WILL BE CONDEMNED FOR LIFE.
IT’S CALLED ACADEMIC FRAUD.
YOUR EMPLOYER WILL SHOW YOU THE DOOR THAT IS SIGN-POSTED AS ‘EXIT’.
SO, VALUE THIS CERTIFICATE YOU ARE RECEIVING TODAY.
IT IS THE START OF A NEW BEGINNING.
LEARNING DOES NOT STOP HERE.
IT CONTINUES AND CONTINUES UNTIL YOU ARE A WELL ROUNDED CANDIDATE FOR CAREER SUCCESS.
TODAY, WE ARE LIVING IN A GLOBAL VILLAGE, WHICH MEANS BY THE TOUCH OF A BUTTON YOU CAN CONTACT ANYONE IN THE WORLD, VIA CELLPHONE, VIA EMAIL, VIA INTERNET, VIA FACEBOOK, VIA TWITTER AND VIA ANY SOCIAL MEDIA.
I STAND BEFORE YOU BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN ANN SEWLAL’S UMAFRIKA SKILLS PROJECT.
IN THESE TRYING TIMES OF ECONOMIC DOWNCAST WHERE JOBS ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY SCARCE AND POVERTY AND SOCIAL ILLS ARE REDUCING THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF THE CITIZENS OF THE GREATER DURBAN REGION, AND MANY OF THE COUNTRY, GOVERNMENT LED BY THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS UNDER OUR MULTIPARTY DEMOCRACY SYSTEM, IS WORKING HARD TO GIVE US ‘A BETTER LIFE FOR ALL’.
JOBLESSNESS IS THE SINGLE GREATEST THREAT TO ALL US – PARTICULARLY OUR YOUTH POPULATION – OUR FUTURE CITIZENS – OUR FUTURE LEADERS.
UMAFRIKA, THROUGH AN SEWLAL’S VISION, OFFERS STUDENTS, SCHOOL-LEAVERS, UNDERGRADUATES AND POST-GRADUATES A PRAGMATIC ANSWER TO A VERY DIFFICULT JOB MARKET – AND THAT IS FOR YOUR TO GAIN NEW SKILLS.
TO DESCRIBE UMAFRIKA, WHICH COMPLIMENTS THE TERTIARY EDUCATION INSTITUTION WITH ITS RANGE OF SHORT COURSES, I WOULD AGREE THAT: ‘
· UMAFRIKA PROJECT SPECIALISTS IS A MODEL FOR COMMUNITY OUTREACH EDUCATION AS A UNIQUE PLATFORM FOR ADVANCED, SHORT COURSES, WORKSHOP-BASED TRAINING PROGRAMME TO COMPLEMENT SOUTH AFRICA’S CRITICAL AND SCARCE SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING CHALLENGES.
TODAY’S JOB MARKET ALSO DEMANDS THAT YOU ARE VERSATILE.
· YOU MUST STRIVE TO BE AN ALL-ROUNDER.
· YOU MUST SAY TO AM PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYER AT A JOB INTERVIEW: ‘I AM MULTISKILLED; I AM A HARD WORKER AND HUMBLE ENOUGH TO MAKE THE TEA OR COFFEE WHILE YOUR COMPANY TEACHES ME THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE’.
· WHILE SERVING THE TEA OR COFFEE, YOU MUST DEVELOP AN APPETITE FOR KNOWLEDGE AND BE WILLING TO LEARN, AND BECOME A TEAM PLAYER WITHIN THE WORKPLACE.
· THERE IS NO ‘I’ IN THE WORD ‘SUCCESS’.
· EMPLOYERS ARE LOOKING FOR JOBSEEKERS WHO CAN ADD VALUE TO THE PROFITABILITY AND VIABILITY OF A BUSINESS, AND IT’S CALLED BOTTOMLINES.
· LEARN TO SPEAK THE ECONOMIC LANGUAGE.
· IF YOU UNDERSTAND SOMEONE’S BUSINESS, THEN YOU WILL GROW WITHIN THE WORKPLACE AND YOU WILL BE A BIGGER ASSET TO THE COMPNAY, AND THAT’S CALLED HUMAN CAPITAL.
IF YOU ARE A SLAVE TO WAGES OR SALARY THEN YOUR CAREER HAS A SHORT SHELF LIFE AND YOU WILL BE WASTING VALUABLE TIME EMAILING AND DROPPING YOUR CV’S ALL OVER.
AND IF YOU CV IS NOT A HONEST STORY OF WHAT YOU CAN OFFER YOUR EMPLOYER, THEN IT ENDS UP IN FILE 13 – THE DUSTBIN.
THAT BRINGS ME TO SOME WORDS OF VISION:
· AN AMERICAN, PHILLIP J KRAWITH, WRITING ABOUT THE FIVE REVOLUTIONS - INDUSTRIAL, TRANSPORT, COMMUNICATIONS, COMPUTER AND INTERNET: “IF YOUR COMPANY HAS PEOPLE WHO ARE SMARTER, BETTER TRAINED, MORE INNOVATIVE AND MORE PASSIONATE THAN THE OPPOSITION, YOU WIN - AND THE IMPLICATIONS ARE PROFOUND.”
APART FROM LEARNING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SKILLS, THE OTHER ASPECT OF SUCCESSFUL CAREER PATHING ARE MENTORING AND COACHING.
REMEMBER THAT ‘WITHOUT A MENTOR, AN INDIVIDUAL WILL LEARN LESS, MORE SLOWLY OR NOT AT ALL,’ SAYS MARIUS MEYER AND LEON FOURIE IN THEIR BOOK, ‘MENTORING AND COACHING’.
· THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN TO PROVIDE GUIDELINES FOR MANAGERS, TEAM LEADERS, FACILITATORS, MENTORS OR COACHES WHO ARE REQUIRED TO DO SOME FORM OF MENTORING AND COACHING AS PART OF THEIR JOBS.
· THE AUTHORS SAY ‘EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT ARE ESSNTIAL REALITIES OF THE NEW BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT’.
· THAT’S WHAT IS WAITING FOR YOU IN THE WORKPLACE – A NEW BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT, A FAR CRY FROM THE WORKPLACE OF YOUR PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS.
· COACHING, MENTORING AND TRAINING IS ALL ABOUT HOW ELL YOU PERFORM IN THE WORKPLACE.
SO, RECEIVING YOUR CERTIFICATES AND BEING HAPPILY PHOTOGRAPHED, IS THE START OF YOU’RE YOUR THOUSAND MILE JOURNEY INTO A LIFE WHICH IS REALLY IN YOUR HANDS.
· YOUR ATTITUDE WILL DETERMINE YOUR ALTITUDE.
· YOUR ATTITUDE WILL DETERMINE YOUR DESTINY.
· TAKE NOTE OF THESE TIPS:
· GOOD COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS;
· RESPECTFUL OF SELF AND OTHERS;
· WILLINGNESS TO SHARE;
· FLEXIBLE;
· ENCOURAGING;
· SENSITIVE TO THE NEEDS OF OTHERS;
· SELF-CONFIDENT;
· COMMITTED;
· SUPPORTIVE;
PUT ALL THE TIPS TOGETHER, IT’S A WORD CALLED ‘UBUNTU’ (HUMANENESS OR HUMANKIND).
WE ALL NEED EACH OTHER, NO-ONE IS INDISPENSABLE, NO-ONE IS AN ISLAND;
BE A TEAM PLAYER.
WE ALL KNOW WHO OPRAH WINFREY IS: WELL, SHE SAYS: “WHERE THERE IS NO STRUGGLE, THERE IS NO STRENGTH.”
ALWAYS REMEMBER: “THERE ARE TWO THINGS NEEDED THESE DAYS; FIRST, FOR RICH PEOPLE TO FIND OUT HOW POOR PEOPLE LIVE; AND SECOND, FOR POOR PEOPLE TO FIND OUT HOW RICH PEOPLE WORK.”
AND WILLIAM SPRAGUE ONCE SAID: “DO NOT WAIT TO STRIKE TILL THE IRON IS HOT; BUT MAKE IT HOT BY STRIKING.”
GOOD LUCK.
NKOSI SIKELEL IAFRIKA.
Marlan Padayachee
Marlan.padayachee@gmail.com/ 073 625 8247/ (031) 266 4293/ 266 2134: PA Pinky Naidoo: 078 076 8121/ Professional coordinator & isiZulu tutor: Sally Nene: 082 686 7561

Tribute to Fallen Journalists

2011-11-28T01:42:00.000-08:00

A double blow for journalism – a tribute to Deon du Plessis and Patrick Leeman
By Marlan Padayachee
KANTHAN Pillay provided an insightful portrait and anecdotes of the newspapering life of Deon du Plessis. This is how I recall a fallen colleague, who ensured that I covered President Nelson Mandela's historic visit to India, once the ANC's strongest ally, for Independent Newspapers and Post, in 1995.
More so, journalism was dealt a double blow: the paragon of publishing, founder of the Daily Sun and stalwart of the mainstream media, has passed on, leaving behind a legacy of an old-fashioned newspaperman, with his sleeves folded and booming voice, that provided excellent editorial leadership and humanity.
Diametrically opposed and a quieter personality was Patrick Leeman, who passed away a day after Du Plessis’s demise on 9/11.
Within the context of the newsroom environment at Natal Newspapers (Independent Newspapers), both wordsmiths touched the lives of peers, colleagues, workers and the public through their unique brand of journalism, human touch and their ability to engage people across the colour lines during the apartheid-democracy era.
Leeman was no Sunday Christian. He brought his Catholicism into his profession, often expressing favourable or dissenting views within the challenges of the industry, championing society’s underclass, while remaining committed to journalism and Paddy Kearney’s Diakonia Council of Churches that assisted striking black media workers in the 1980s.
Du Plessis also showed his hand and craftsmanship during the Media Workers Association of South Africa’s 13-week industrial action in a national protest against newsroom inequalities, racism and lack of career opportunities for disadvantaged reporters and poor pay and working conditions for workers.
As Deputy Editor of the Sunday Tribune, one of the Argus/SAAN publications hit by the strike, Du Plessis tackled the pros and the cons of the strike issue in his column about the ‘three empty desks’ – a reference to the absence of journalists, Ticks Chetty, Shami Harichunder and I from our work stations. The strike separated white and black colleagues on industry politics and ideological grounds.
The union remained unswerving to bring about the changes that presently prevail in the print and electronic media. MWASA won the day. Workers were reinstated and not even a big-hearted and boorish giant like Du Plessis bore any resentment to those who reoccupied the ‘three empty desks’.
He understood the growing militancy and the political terrain of the time. He also stopped short of sanctioning unionised journalists who raised their clenched fists, black-power style, at the launch of an ethnic political party headed by a controversial House of Delegates’ politician. Despite fielding the complaint, Du Plessis argued cogently about the objectivity of journalists, whether we enjoyed political rights, but still respected our action.
Heading back to Johannesburg, straight-talking Du Plessis left an indelible mark in the business of news gathering. Despite his ideological chasm, Afrikaner culture and fiercely independent mind, many of us looked up to this towering practitioner with admiration and respect.
This firm and fair, and yet colourful persona, is journalism’s loss .
The success of his top-circulation tabloid for blue-collar and working-class readers bears testimony to his integrity, honesty, management style, professional passion and inimitable common touch.
His legacy and contribution serves to inspire editors and journalists to continue reporting and publishing without fear or favour, and be damned, particularly at a time when the media landscape is at the crossroads of our young constitutional democracy.
Ends
· Marlan Padayachee, Journalist, Researcher and Media and Communications Strategist, GreenGold House, 1 Hillside Road, Dawncliffe, Westville, South Africa: marlan.padayachee@greengoldmedia.com/ (031) 266 2134/ 266 4293/ Cell: 073 625 8247.

Durban's Fozy Peer is rising in radiography ranks

2011-11-10T04:13:00.000-08:00

Durban’s Fozy Peer – Rising Within the World of Radiography
By Marlan Padayachee
WHEN radiographers in South Africa and rest of the globe celebrate World Radiography Day on 8th November, one of its chief campaigners, Dr Fozy Peer of Durban, will be in the company of some of leading scientists at the conference of the International Atomic Energy Association in Vienna, Austria.
Dr Peer, a senior manager in nuclear medicine at the Chief Albert Luthuli Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, is among the delegates attending this week’s four-day IAEA’s conference that will also focus on the latest Pet-Scan Imaging diagnostics purposes used to treat mainly cancer patients.
She said her attendance and participation at the conference will bring her to the coalface of nuclear medicine, radiography and radiology issues on a world scale as the conference has attracted some of the leading thought leaders, academics and exponents in the professions.
Back at home and in many countries around the world, including Africa, radiographers will be holding workshops, seminars, goodwill fellowships and get-togethers to mark World Radiography Day under the theme, Radiography: the Heart of Medicine, at government and private hospitals and medical centres and institutions.
Each year, the Society of Radiographers of South Africa, of which Dr Peer is a spokeswoman and board member, gather to pay homage to Professor Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen for his discovery of X-rays in 1895, an outstanding academic achievement that made him the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for physics in 1901.
Said Dr Peer, the first woman in the country to achieve a doctorate in radiography, and a director of public-relations and board member of the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technicians: “World Radiography Day is an annual international initiative that is aimed at raising awareness of and stimulating an interest in radiography as a profession. This collective contribution serves to highlight the importance of radiography, the indispensable function it plays, and the frontline role of radiographers in the health care environment.”
Hospitals and health care centres here and abroad will host open days and share information about radiography as a challenging career in the medical and healthcare sector
In the medical field, radiographers play a key role as frontline health workers, particularly during the upcoming holiday season when road fatalities and pedestrian injuries escalate at crisis proportions through speeding, reckless driving practices, especially drink-driving and drug abuse behind the wheel.
“World Radiography Day also highlights career opportunities for young graduates, promotes opportunities for radiographers to start their own practices, and puts the focus on how government can partner the private sector in stemming the flow of the flight skills. Scarce skills are bound to affect the quality of healthcare for patients across South Africa.”
Dr Peer, who has been credited locally and internationally for having brought the first World Congress of the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technicians to Durban, South in 2008, and then responsible for the hosting of the first joint conference of the Society of Radiographers of South Africa and the Radiological Society of South Africa in Durban this year, also confirmed the second joint Durban Congress of both disciplines will be held in the city from 18-21 April in 2013.
The next World Congress takes place in Toronto, Canada, in 2012.

SOUTH AFRICA CELEBRATES WORLD RADIOGRAPHY DAY 8 NOVEMBER 2011
RADIOGRAPHERS and medical support staff will join the rest of the world in celebrating and commemorating World Radiography Day on Tuesday, 8 November.
The Society of Radiographers of South Africa will observe this year’s theme, Radiography: the Heart of Medicine, in homage to Professor Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen for his discovery of X-rays in 1895 and first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for physics in 1901.
“Radiography Day is an annual international initiative that is aimed at raising awareness of and stimulating an interest in radiography as a profession. This collective contribution serves to highlight the importance of radiography, the indispensable function it plays and the frontline role of radiographers in the health care environment,” said Dr Fozy Peer, spokeswoman for Society of Radiographers of South Africa and the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technicians.
Hospitals and health care centres in South Africa and across the globe will host open days and share information about radiography as a challenging career in the medical and healthcare sector.
Marlan Padayachee is a journalist and media consultant to the Society of Radiographers of South Africa.

Ends

2011-04-12T23:18:00.000-07:00

Durban signs twinning agreement with Chennai

2011-01-10T08:46:00.000-08:00

BY MARLAN PADAYACHEE

PRESENTATION PAPER BY THE DEPUTY MAYOR, COUNCILLOR LOGANATHAN NAIDOO, CHAIRPERSON OF THE ECONOMIC AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE, ETHEKWINI MUNICIAPLITY AT THE ANC PROGRESSIVE BUSINES FORUM TRADE DELEGATION TO CHENNAI INDIA/ SOUTH AFRICA –INDIA TRADE SEMINAR ON THE TOPIC SOUTH AFRICA – OPEN FOR BUSIUNESS 13-17 NOVEMBER 2010.

DATE: TUESDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2010

TIME: 10H20,

VENUE: PARK SHERAT0N HOTEL CHENNAI.

THANK YOU, DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMME.

· GOOD MORNING, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN; HONOURED GUESTS;

· VANNAKAM;

· NAMASTE;

· NAMASKARUMU;

· SAWUBONA;

· ASSALAMU ALAIKUM;

· SANIBONANI;

· GOEIE MORE;

· THE HONOURABLE MS SHOBANA KAMINENI, PAST PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATION OF INDIA INDUSTRY (SR) AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF APOLLO HOSPITALS GROUP;

· HIS EXCELLENCY, THE HONOURABLE REVEREND HARRIS MAJEKA, SOUTH AFRICAN HIGH COMMISSIONER TO INDIA; AND CONSULAR STAFF FROM THE SOUTH AFRICAN MISSIONS IN INDIA;

· THE HONOURABLE MR DARYL SWANEPOEL, CO-CONVENOR OF THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS PROGRESSIVE BUSINESS FORUM OF SOUTH AFRICA;

· MR RAJEEV RANJAN, THE IAS PRINCIPAL SECRETARY, INDUSTRIES DEPARTMENT, GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU.

· MR SUJITH HARIDAS, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, CONFEDERATION OF INDIA INDUSTRY, SOUTHERN REGION;

· MEMBERS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS DELEGATION;

· MEMBERS OF THE INDIAN BUSINESS DELEGATION;

· ALL GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPAL OFFICIALS;

· MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA;

· ALL PROTOCOLS OBSERVED;

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, TODAY, THE 16^TH DAY OF NOVEMBER 2010 IS AN IMPORTANT DAY IN THE LONGSTANDING RELATIONS BETWEEN THE PEOPLE OF INDIA AND THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH AFRICA.

EXACTLY, ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO, TO THIS HOUR, INDIA GAVE BIRTH TO ONE OF THE FIRST AND MOST FORMIDABLE INDIAN COMMUNITIES OUTSIDE WHAT MANY OF MY INDIAN COMPATRIOTS AND COMRADES WOULD CALL THE MOTHERLAND, THAI NADU, AS WE SAY IN TAMIL OR TELUGU.

TODAY, BACK IN MY BELOVED COUNTRY OF BIRTH, SOUTH AFRICA, MORE THAN 1, 3 MILLION INDIANS WILL START CELEBRATING AND COMMEMORATING ONE OF THE GREATEST EVENTS OF A POIGNANT HUMAN DRAMA THROUGHOUT THE CITIES AND TOWNS WHERE SOUTH AFRICANS OF INDIAN ORIGIN RESIDE AND WORK CHEEK BY JOWL TO REALIZE THE AFRICAN DREAM FOR ALL OUR CITIZENS OF MORE THAN 45-MILLION.

IT IS THEREFORE APPROPRIATE THAT I THANK OUR HOST FOR YOUR GRACIOUS WELCOME AND HOSPITALITY OF WHAT WILL CLEARLY MAP OUT AS THE REAL INDIAN EXPERIENCE ON SOUTHERN SHORES OF INDIA WHERE THE FIRST BATCH OF 340 INDENTURED LABOURERS WERE SHIPPED TO THE CITY OF DURBAN ON 16^TH NOVEMBER 1860.

SUGAR FARMING WAS SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED IN OUR REGION IN 1855 WHEN OUR SUGAR FARMERS GOT WIND OF HOW THE INDIAN INDENTURED LABOUR SYSTEM WAS GIVING NEW ECONOMIC LIFE TO THE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN MAURITIUS AND MADAGASCAR SUGAR PLANTATIONS.

SUGAR FARMING WAS SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED IN THIS REGION IN 1855 WHEN OUR SUGAR FARMERS GOT WIND OF HOW THE INDIAN INDENTURED LABOUR SYSTEM WAS GIVING NEW ECONOMIC LIFE TO THE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN MAURITIUS AND MADAGASCAR SUGAR PLANTATIONS.

THE BURGEONING BARONS OF THIS INDUSTRY THEN LOBBIED THE GOVERNMENT OF NATAL TO INTRODUCE INDENTURED INDIAN LABOURERS TO WORK ON THEIR SUGAR PLANTATIONS.

DURING BRITAIN’S COLONIAL RULE, INDIANS WERE PERCEIVED AS SUITABLE WORKERS FOR THIS JOB AS THEY WERE ALREADY USED TO THIS SYSTEM IN THE INDIAN OCEAN ISLANDS, AND THEY SOUGHT AFTER AS SKILFUL AGRICULTURISTS AND GARDENERS.

BUOYED BY AN INDOMITABLE SPIRIT OF SURVIVAL AND ENTERPRISE, THEY VENTURED INTO THE DARKNESS, ONLY TO TURN THEIR POOR PLIGHT OF INDENTURED LABOUR INTO ONE OF LIGHTNESS THAT WILL FOREVER LINK INDIA TO SOUTH AFRICA DURING THE TURBULENT PERIOD OF COLONIAL-APARTHEID HISTORY THAT CULMINATING IN GANDHIJEE RETURNING TO INDIA AS A PEACE GURU AND MANDELA BECOMING OUR NEW NATION’S FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT.

IT THEREFORE GIVES ME AN INCREDIBLE SENSE OF PRIDE, PLEASURE, PATRIOTISM AND HUMILITY TO SHARE WITH YOU THAT THIS IS CERTAINLY A GOD-GIVEN PRIVILEGE TO BE VISITING THE SEAPORT OF CHENNAI WHERE THE SS TRURO DEPARTED INTO THE DARKNESS OF THE INDIAN OCEAN TO BRING HOME OUR FOREBEARS WHO WOULD MAKE MOTHER INDIA SO PROUD AND THIS SYMBOLIC UMBILICAL CORD WILL FOREVER REMAIN BETWEEN CHENNAI AND DURBAN AS WE NAVIGATE THIS TRADING PROTOCOL TO TAKE INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA INTO THE HEART OF THE AFRICAN 21^ST CENTURY.

MR CHAIRPERSON, DISTINGUISHED GUESTS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.

AS THE DEPUTY MAYOR OF THE ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY AND THE CITY OF DURBAN, AND ALSO IN MY CAPACITY AS CHAIRPERSON OF DURBAN’S ECONOMIC AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE, I BELIEVE I WON’T BE OUT OF ORDER IF I EXTEND A COLLECTIVE BOUQUET OF GRATITUDE TO OUR DISTINGUISHED HOSTS.

FROM THE MOMENT EMIRATES FLIGHT EK 544 TOUCHED DOWN ON THE RUNWAY IN CHENNAI, WE HAVE BEEN TREATED WITH EXCEPTIONAL WARMTH AND FRIENDSHIP, AND THIS GLOBAL GOODWILL IS ONLY UNIQUE TO INCREDIBLE INDIA.

IF THE SPIRIT (IF NOT HIGH SPIRITS) AND VIGOUR WAS ANYTHING TO GO BY AT SUNDAY NIGHT’S WELCOME AND NETWORKING DINNER AT TAJ COROMANDEL HOTEL IS ANYTHING TO GO BY AS A SOCIAL-BUSINESS GAUGE OR BAROMETER, THEN OUR DELEGATION MUST BRACE ITSELF FOR A TRADE MISSION THAT WILL FOREVER BE ETCHED IN THEIR MINDS AS ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING AND FASCINATION BUSINESS EXPERIENCES.

ON BEHALF OF OUR DELEGATION, I SAY ‘THANK YOU’ IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE BRITISH COLONIALISTS WHO SHIPPED US TO SOUTH AFRICA, ‘NAANDRI’ IN TAMIL AND ‘NGIYABONGA’ IN THE INDIGENOUS ISIZULU LANGUAGE OF THE KINGDOM OF THE KWAZULU, WHERE THE CITY OF DURBAN IS STRATEGICALLY POSITIONED ON THE INDIAN OCEAN RIM AS THE GATEWAY INTO AFRICA.

ON BEHALF OF THE ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY AND THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF DURBAN, I EXTEND WARM GREETINGS, GOODWILL AND GOOD WISHES TO THE CITIZENS OF CHENNAI ON THIS HISTORIC DAY THAT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO REDEFINE OUR MUTUALLY-ENHANCING RELATIONS ON THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL SPHERES.

WE HAIL FROM A CITY OF GOLDEN BEACHES WHERE OUR MANTRA IS THE ‘FUN NEVER SETS’.

SO LET ME ASSURE YOU THAT OUR ESTEEMED REPRESENTATIVES FROM SOME OF OUR FINEST HOMEGROWN BRANDS HAVE MUCH MORE THAN THEIR SOCIAL STAMINA TO MAKE THIS LONG HAUL INTO A FRUITFUL AND ENTERPRISING SHARING AND EXCHANGING OF BUSINESS ACUMEN, TRADE OPPORTUNITIES AND PARTNERSHIPS.

THE ANC RULING PARTY’S PROGRESSIVE BUSINESS FORUM WAS LAUNCHED AT OUR PARTY’S HEADQUARTERS IN LUTHULI HOUSE AS A NEW VEHICLE TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION THAT THE ANC HAD EMBARKED ON IN RECENT YEARS TO PLACE MORE AND MORE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS IN THE HANDS OF PREVIOUSLY DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES, OF WHICH INCLUDES THE INDIAN COMMUNITY.

MANY OF THESE COMPANIES ARE REPRESENTED AMONG THE 35 TO 40 COMPANIES AND CONSULTANCIES IN OUR DELEGATION.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE 1860 INDENTURED LABOURERS, WE ARE RETRACING OUR STEPS TO STRENGTHEN A NEW ERA OF ENTERPRISE WITH OUR PROVINCE AND SOUTH INDIA.

THE ONE OF THE PURPOSES OF OUR TRADE VISIT IS TO SEEK APPROVAL FROM THE CITY GOVERNMENT OF CHENNAI TO SIGN THE SISTER CITY AGREEMENT BETWEEN ETHEKWINI AND CHENNAI.

THIS MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WHICH HAS BEEN SHARED WITH THE CONSUL-GENERAL OF INDIA IN DURBAN HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND CO-OPERATION AND HAS SINCE BEEN RATIFIED AND APPROVED.

ALSO, AS THE DEPUTY MAYOR AND HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND GOVERNANCE IN THE CITY OF DURBAN, I WISH TO SHARE SOME BACKGROUND WITH YOU.

SOUTH AFRICA AND INDIA ARE STRONG TRADING PARTNERS AND HAVE ESTABLISHED MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL RELATIONS THROUGH A NUMBER OF INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS. SOUTH AFRICA AND INDIA HAVE SIGNED A NATIONAL BI-NATIONAL COMMISSION AND HAS AGREED TO COOPERATE WITH INDIA WITHIN THE IBSA AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS THAT STRIVES TO SUPPORT AND STRENGTHEN THE WORLDS DEVELOPING ECONOMIES.

IN ORDER TO GIVE ADDED MOMENTUM AND ADDED BENEFIT TO THE ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY IT HAS BEEN RECOMMENDED THAT THE MUNICIPALITY JOIN A POWERFUL BUSINESS DELEGATION TO CHENNAI INDIA.

THE DELEGATION WILL SEEK TO BUILD STRONG BUSINESS TO BUSINESS ENGAGEMENTS IN THE FIELDS OF AUTO-MOTOR, COMPUTERS, AND IT HARDWARE MANUFACTURING AND HEALTH CARE INDUSTRIES.

IN ORDER TO STRENGTHEN THE BUSINESS AND POLITICAL TO ENHANCE TRADE AND INVESTMENT, WE BELIEVE THAT SIGNING OF A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING AND LAYING OF A PLAQUE WITHIN THE CITY OF CHENNAI TO COMMEMORATE THE ARRIVAL OF INDENTURED INDIAN LABOURERS IN 1860 ON THE FIRST SHIP FROM INDIA THAT DEPARTED FROM CHENNAI, WILL BUILD SIGNIFICANT POLITICAL AND CULTURAL GOODWILL BETWEEN THE CITIZENS OF THE TWO CITIES, AND IN SO DOING FAST TRACK TRADE, INVESTMENT AND CULTURAL EXCHANGES THAT WILL BENEFIT BOTH CITIES.

IN THE PAST 16 YEARS SINCE OUR RELATIONSHIP BEGAN BEARING FRUIT AND BLOSSOMING INTO A FULL-BLOWN SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL PARTNERSHIP, WE HAVE ESTABLISHED LINKS WITH BOLLYWOOD.

ON THIS MISSION, WE WANT TO PROMOTE TRADE AND TOURISM AND CONTINUE THE CULTURAL LINK THAT BEGAN 150 YEARS AGO AND STILL CONTINUES BETWEEN OUR TWO FRIENDLY COUNTRIES.

ON THIS MISSION, WE ARE READY TO DO BUSINESS WITH OUR SOUTH INDIAN COUNTERPARTS.

WE NOW NEED TO CEMENT LINKS WITH THIS ANCIENT SEAPORT WHERE THE FOUNDING FOREBEARS OF THE INDIAN COMMUNITY SET SAIL FOR DURBAN.

OUR DELEGATION IS OVERWHELMED BY THE HISTORIC EVENT THAT COMMEMORATES AND CELEBRATES 150 YEARS OF INDIAN LINKAGE TO AFRICA.

I BELIEVE THE TWINNING OF DURBAN AND CHENNAI IS THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC TONIC THAT WILL SET OUR ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP ALIGHT.

DURBAN HAS TWINNING AGREEMENTS WITH CHICAGO, AND NEW ORLEANS IN THE UNITED STATES; ROTTERDAM IN THE NETHERLANDS; LEEDS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM; BULAWAYO AND MAPUTO IN AFRICA; REUNION ISLAND IN THE INDIAN OCEAN RIM.

CHENNAI, OR MADRAS AS WE KNEW IT IN THE COLONIAL-APARTHEID ERA, IS THE FIRST CITY IN INDIA WITH WHICH WE ARE PROPOSING A TWINNING THAT WILL BUILD A BRIDGE FOR US ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN RIM.

WITH THE TWIN CITIES AGREEMENT IN PLACE, I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT THE BIG BLUE SKIES WILL BE MORE THAN THE LIMIT OF OUR CONSTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENT OF ECONOMIC TOES AND SOCIAL EXCHANGES.

WE ARE CONFIDENT THAT IN THIS HEARTLAND OF TAMIL NADU, ICONIC LEADERS LIKE CHIEF MINISTER M KARUNANIDHI AND THE MAYOR OF THE CHENNAI MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, HIS WORSHIP MANICKAM SUBRAMANIAN WILL HELP US NAVIGATE THIS TWINNING AGREEMENT TO BRING OUR ECONOMIES AND COMMUNITIES CLOSER TOGETHER FOR THE BETTERMENT OF BOTH SIDES OF OUR SHARED LEGACY.

OUR DELEGATION ARE FULLY BEHIND DURBAN’S INITIATIVE BECAUSE THEY ARDENTLY BELIEVE THAT CHENNAI’S WORLD REPUTATION AS BEING A STRONG HUB FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, TEXTILES, MOTOR MANUFACTURING AND THE MOVIE INDUSTRY COULD BE MATCHED WITH THE SIMILAR ECONOMIC GROWTH POINTS AND STRENGTHS DURBAN HAS TO OFFER CHENNAI.

OUR DELEGATION WILL BE LOOKING AT HOW BUSINESS BASED IN THE PORT CITY OF CHENNAI COULD TIE UP AGREEMENTS WITH OUR BUSINESSES BASED IN DURBAN.

WE ARE ALSO KEEN TO LINK SOUTH AFRICAN COMPANIES WITH SOUTH INDIAN COUNTERPARTS.

IN THE BROADER PICTURE OF OUR SOCIO-ECONOMIC JOURNEY, WE LOOK TO THE SOUTH INDIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND THE CONFEDERATION OF INDIAN INDUSTRIES TO JOIN DURBAN AND CHENNAI IN THIS BRAVE NEW JOURNEY INTO SOUTH-SOUTH TRADING AND BUSINESS SYNERGY AND JOINT VENTURE PARTNERSHIPS.

FROM OUR FROM QUAYSIDE, WE ARE READY FOR AN EXCITING NEW ECONOMIC CROSSING TO CHENNAI.

WE INVITE OUR INDIAN COUNTERPARTS TO ALSO UNDERTAKE THE CROSSING THAT CHENNAI AND DURBAN.

AS WE RELIVE AND REKINDLE OUR HISTORIC CHAPTER THAT TIES OUR DESTINATIONS AND DEMOCRACIES, LET ME DECLARE THAT SOUTH AFRICA IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS AND FULL OF OPPORTUNITY.

I AM FORTUNATE THAT THE DURBAN-CHENNAI ROUTE IS A BEATEN TRACK FOR ME.

I HAVE BEEN FORGING THIS JOURNEY FOR ALMOST A DOZEN YEARS.

EVER SINCE CONSUL-GENERAL LATHA REDDY RAISED THE INDIAN FLAG, PRE-1994, AT THE OLD STATION BUILDING WHERE MK GANDHI SET OUT ON A HISTORIC AND CONTROVERSIAL TRAIN JOURNEY TO PRETORIA THAT WAS TO RESULT IN AN INTERNATIONAL RACIAL INCIDENT IN WHICH GANDHIJEE WAS THROWN OFF THE ‘WHITES-ONLY TRAIN’ IN PIETERMARITZBURG, AND WHEN AMBASSADOR MANGALMURTHI REOPENED THE INDIAN EMBASSY IN 1994 THAT WAS SHUTDOWN IN PROTEST AGAINST THE APARTHEID GOVERNMENT IN 1940S, I CAN SHARE WITH THIS SEMINAR THAT TRADING CONDITIONS BETWEEN OUR TWO SISTER CITIES HAS BEEN BRISK.

SOME OF THE POSITIVE SPIN-OFFS OF THESE PIONEERING EARLY-YEAR VISITS HAVE BEEN THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOOTPRINTS OF RAMCO, AN INNOVATIVE THAT NOW LOOM LARGE IN THE CITY OF DURBAN AT OUR IT HUB THAT RAMCO EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT AND IT LEADERS HAD HELPED OUR MUNICIPALITY TO DEVELOP SINCE THE 1990S.

TODAY, RAMCO IS ONE OF THE PIONEERING COMPANIES THAT EMBARKED ON THE BRAVE NEW JOURNEY INTO AFRICA.

IT IS THE SAME BIG BLUE OCEAN WHERE OUR INDIAN FOREBEARS BEGAN A HORRIFIC AND HORRENDOUS JOURNEY OF LABOUR MIGRATION THAT WAS TO CULMINATE IN FUTURE GENERATIONS OF INDIANS TYING THEIR MAST TO AN AFRICAN DESTINY.

TODAY, WE HAVE GATHERED ON A DATELINE AND DESTINATION THAT WILL FOREVER CEMENT THIS HISTORIC MILESTONE BETWEEN THE PEOPLE OF CHENNAI AND THE PEOPLE OF DURBAN.

IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS OF THIS GROUNDBREAKING TRADE VISIT, WE WOULD HAVE SUCCEEDED IN UNIFYING AND SOLIDIFYING ALL OF INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA AROUND A COMMONNESS OF OUR CULTURAL DIVERSITY, SOCIAL COHESION, ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT AND POLITICAL EXCHANGE AND SHARING OF ECONOMIC IDEAS AND STRATEGIES.

THIS MORNING, AS WE PUSH BACK THE FRONTIERS OF A UNIQUE ECONOMIC JOURNEY THAT BEGAN 150 YEARS AGO, WE ARE UPBEAT AND CONFIDENT THAT THIS STRATEGIC SEMINAR WILL PROVIDE US WITH A FRESH, NEW ROUTE MARKER TO NARROW THE LOGISTICAL CHALLENGE BETWEEN DURBAN AND CHENNAI.

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS AND PANELISTS, HONOURED GUESTS AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE WATERMARK ON ANY TRADE AGREEMENTS OR ECONOMIC PACTS THAT WE WILL ENDORSE DURING THIS TRADE MUST FOREVER BE INSPIRED BY THE INTREPID BAND OF INDIAN INDENTURED VISIONARIES.

AS A SON OF THE SLAVES, I AM PROUD TO BE STANDING BEFORE YOU BY CALLING UPON ALL THE CHENNAI BUSINESS STAKEHOLDERS TO JOIN YOUR NEW DURBAN COUNTERPARTS IN GIVING NEW MEANING TO THE SOUTH-SOUTH LATITUDE THAT COULD ENCOURAGE BOTH SIDES OF THE INDIAN OCEAN RIM TO MAKE THIS TRADE DELEGATION AN ANNUAL EVENT SO THAT MORE AND MORE ENTREPRENEURS ENJOY THE OPPORTUNITY OF WALKING THROUGH THESE NEW AVENUES OF SOUTH AFRICA-INDIA BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS AND SYNERGIES.

SURELY THE SUCCESS OF THIS BRAVE NEW JOURNEY IN WHICH WE ARE CHARTERING NEW WATERS WILL BE A FITTING HOMAGE TO THE HISTORIC HOUR WHEN ‘COOLIE NUMBER ONE’ 30-YEAR-OLD DAVURAM FROM MADRAS STEPPED OFF THE SS TRURO AND SET FOOT ON THE SHORES OF DURBAN.

THE SECOND INDENTURED LABOURER ON THE SHIP’S MANIFEST WAS 18-YEAR-OLD NAGURAM, PROBABLY HIS WIFE, AND THEIR TWO CHILDREN, FOUR-YEAR-OLD KUBAY, AND ONE-YEAR-OLD ELIZABETH.

THESE STOICAL BANDS OF INDENTURED LABOURERS WHO WERE FOLLOWED BY THOUSANDS OF ECONOMIC MIGRANT LABOURERS, TRADERS, ARTISANS WERE TO LAY A POWERFUL PLATFORM FOR MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI TO FOREVER CHANGE THE TIDE OF OPPRESSIVE COLONIAL POLITICS AS WE KNEW IT IN SOUTH AFRICA, INDIA AND OTHER COUNTRIES WHERE SUGAR PLANTATIONS WAS THE NEW GOLD OF THE 18^TH CENTURY.

THIS HISTORIC DATE, 16^TH OF NOVEMBER 1860, HAS COME TO DEFINE AND SHAPE THE DESTINY OF GENERATIONS OF OUR INDIAN CITIZENS IN DURBAN AND OTHER METROPOLITAN CITIES AND TOWNS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

TODAY, MORE THAN 800 00 OF SOUTH AFRICA’S 1, 3 MILLION CITIZENS OF INDIAN ORIGIN RESIDE IN THE CITY OF DURBAN AND CITIES AND TOWNS ACROSS THE PROVINCE OF KWAZULU-NATAL.

FOR ME, AS A SON OF INDENTURED LABOURERS, I AM GRATEFUL THAT WE ARE SHARING THIS MOMENT OF HISTORY TO CEMENT THE RELATIONS BETWEEN DURBAN AND CHENNAI AT THE UNVEILING OF A COMMEMORATIVE PLAQUE LATER TODAY.

THIS COLOURFUL CEREMONY, I FIRMLY BELIEVE, MAY FOREVER STAND AS A SYMBOL OF OUR OF PAST ERA OF ADVERSITY AND OUR PRESENT JOURNEY OF ADVANTAGE AND ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION BETWEEN OUR SEAPORTS; AS A LASTING MOMENT OF OUR PRESENT AND FUTURE CO-OPERATION.

CLOSER TO HOME, AN INDIAN FLAG FLYING ALONGSIDE THE SOUTH AFRICAN OUTSIDE A LANDMARK TYRE MANUFACTURING COMPANY CALLED DUNLOP OUTSIDE THE DURBAN CBD TELLS A REMARKABLE STORY OF HOW FAR THE TRADE JOURNEY HAS COME BETWEEN INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA.

IN THE BUSINESS HUB OF JOHANNESBURG, THE GUPTA FAMILY FROM INDIA HAS ESTABLISHED A BEST-KNOWN COMPUTER BRAND CALLED SAHARA.

THE GUPTAS ARE TO LAUNCH AN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL NEWSPAPER CALLED THE NEW AGE THAT WILL TAKE A FRESH NEW LOOK AT POLITICS, A PROGRESSIVE PEOPLE-CENTRED GOVERNMENT AND THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC REVOLUTION THAT IS TAKING PLACE IN OUR RAINBOW NATION OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY WHERE INDIAN NATIONALS ARE AT HOME IN THE HEART OF AFRICA’S ECONOMIC MELTING POT.

WITH THE SIGNING OF A SISTER-CITY RELATIONSHIP WITH CHENNAI, WE ASSURE INDIAN BUSINESSES THAT YOU WILL BE FLYING MORE THAN YOUR COLOURS IN OUR COSMOPOLITAN CITY WHERE EAST MEETS WEST ACROSS THE AFRICAN DIASPORA.

A UNIQUELY COSMOPOLITAN CITY, DURBAN CAN BEST BE DESCRIBED AS A PARADISE AND ITS PEOPLE.

A VISITOR TO DURBAN MAY STRUGGLE TO FIND A DEFINITE PHRASE THAT FITS THE CITY AND ITS SUBURBS.

FOR DURBAN, OR ETHEKWINI (THE CITY BY THE WATER IN THE ISIZULU LANGUAGE), AS IT IS ALSO CALLED, CONTAINS SUCH A VAST SPECTRUM OF CULTURES, BELIEFS AND PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC LANDSCAPES, THAT IS INDEED DIFFICULT TO ENCAPSULATE THE PLACE IN A WELL-WORDED PHRASE.

BUT IT IS PRECISELY IN THIS DIFFICULTY OF FINDING A CENTRAL METAPHOR OR DESCRIPTION THAT THE SECRETS AND RICHES OF THIS LIVELY AFRICAN CITY RESIDE.

FOR DURBAN IS A CITY OF FUSION, CROSS-POLLINATION, OF WILD ECLECTICISM.

HERE AFRICA, EUROPE, AMERICA AND THE EAST MEET AT A SINGLE GEOGRAPHICAL POINT.

DURBAN HAS A SUMMERY CLIMATE WITHOUT BEING SWELTERING.

AS A BEACH PARADISE, THE DURBAN GOLDEN MILE, WHERE WE ARE PLANNING A BOLLYWOOD/HOLLYWOOD TYPE FILM STUDIO, IS A STRETCH OF GOLDEN SANDY BEACHES AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE, COMPLEMENTED BY ALL YEAR ROUND WARM INDIAN OCEAN, SUNNY CLEAR AFRICAN SKIES AND AS NEW ARRIVALS YOU WILL ENJOY ALL THAT TROPICAL PARADISE AND VIBE OF OUR COLOURFUL CONTINENT.

WE ARE HOME TO SOUTH AFRICA’S BIGGEST PORT, IS HOT AND SOMETIMES HUMID, A BEACH PARADISE.

NOW, YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHY INDIAN BUSINESS LEGACY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP REIGNS SUPREME IN THE CITY OF DURBAN, WHETHER IT’S THE FOOD MECCA OF THE JEWEL OF INDIA THAT ENSURED THAT THE CHENNAI SUPER KINGS WERE WELL FED WITH INDIAN CUISINES DURING THEIR RECENT CRICKET SERIES TOUR, OR HOW THE BANK OF BARODA IS PROVIDING INDIAN NATIONALS WITH WORLD CLASS BANKING SERVICES IN OUR CULTURALLY DIVERSE CBDS.

THERE ARE MANY OTHER INDIAN MULTINATIONALS FLAGS FLYING HIGH IN THE CITY OF DURBAN.

DURBAN IS AN INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT FRIENDLY CITY AND THE STATISTICS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

RESEARCH BY MCGREGOR INFORMATION SERVICES SHOWS THAT SINCE 1993 INDIAN INVESTMENT HAS GROWN FROM NOTHING TO R2, 7BILLION SINCE 1994 IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA.

ESTIMATES NOW PUT THE NUMBER OF INDIAN COMPANIES, WHICH ARE TRADING IN SOUTH AFRICA AT MORE THAN 500, OF WHICH 20 HAVE ESTABLISHED LOCAL SUBSIDIARIES AND A FURTHER 100 HAVE APPOINTED LOCAL AGENTS AND DISTRIBUTORS.

EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF INDIA RELOCATED ITS AFRICA OFFICE FROM ABIDJAN TO JOHANNESBURG AND RECENTLY SIGNED AN AGREEMENT WITH STANDARD BANK TO EXTEND A $10M CREDIT LINE TO FINANCE EXPORTS FROM INDIA TO SOUTH AFRICA.

OTHER INDIAN BANKS ACTIVE IN SOUTH AFRICA ARE BANK OF BARODA AND THE STATE BANK OF INDIA, WHICH HAS OPENED A BRANCH IN DURBAN TO AUGMENT ITS JOHANNESBURG OFFICE IN THE COUNTRY’S COMMERCIAL CAPITAL.

DISTINGUISHED GUESTS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, AS THE DEPUTY MAYOR OF ONE OF AFRICA’S LEADING, DEBT-FREE CITIES WITH ONE OF THE BEST CITY ADMINISTRATIONS, LET ME ROUND UP MY ADDRESS BY TOUCHING ON SOME VERY ATTRACTIVE HIGHLIGHTS THAT WILL ENCOURAGE SOUTH INDIAN BUSINESSES TO INVEST IN THE CITY OF DURBAN.

OUR MUNICIPAL AREA IS LOCATED ON THE EASTERN SEABOARD OF SOUTH AFRICA WITHIN THE PROVINCE OF KWAZULU-NATAL, COVERING ABOUT 2 297 SQUARE KILOMETRES.

WHILE OUR TOTAL MUNICIPAL AREA IS ONLY 1.4% OF THE TOTAL AREA OF THE PROVINCE OF KWAZULU-NATAL, JUST OVER A THIRD OF OUR PROVINCIAL POPULATION AND 60% OF ITS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY ARE CONCENTRATED WITHIN OUR ETHEKWINI MUNICIPAL AREA.

OUR REGION IS CHARACTERIZED BY DIVERSE TOPOGRAPHY, FROM STEEP ESCARPMENTS IN THE WEST TO A RELATIVELY FLAT COASTAL PLAIN IN THE EAST.

WE HAVE ALMOST 100KM OF COASTLINE, 19 RIVERS AND 17 ESTUARIES. THIS DIVERSE LAND FORM SUPPORTS A WIDE VARIETY OF TERRESTRIAL, FRESH WATER AND MARINE NATURAL ECOSYSTEMS.

OUR PEOPLE

OUR CITY IS A MIX OF RACIAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY, WITH ITS AFRICAN, INDIAN/ASIAN AND EUROPEAN INFLUENCES CREATING A VIBRANT COSMOPOLITAN SOCIETY. OUR MUNICIPAL AREA HAS AN ESTIMATED POPULATION OF JUST OVER 3 MILLION PEOPLE.

THE BLACK AFRICAN COMMUNITY MAKES UP THE LARGEST SECTOR (65%) OF THE POPULATION FOLLOWED BY THE INDIAN/ASIAN COMMUNITY (21%). THE AGE PROFILE REVEALS THAT, THE WORKING AGE GROUP COMPRISES 68% OF THE POPULATION; WE ALSO HAVE A RELATIVELY LARGE YOUTHFUL POPULATION, WITH 38% UNDER THE AGE OF 19 YEARS.

OUR ECONOMY
DURBAN IS SOUTH AFRICA’S MAJOR PORT CITY WITH A DIVERSE A DIVERSE AND VIBRANT LOCAL ECONOMY.

DURBAN IS SOUTH AFRICA’S SECOND LARGEST INDUSTRIAL HUB BEHIND GAUTENG.

DURBAN HAS A LARGE CONCENTRATION OF MANUFACTURING ACTIVITY DIRECTLY AND INDIRECTLY LINKED TO OUR STATUS AS A PORT CITY.

DURBAN IS ALSO THE COUNTRIES KEY TRADING GATEWAY WITH ACCESS TO IMPORTANT TRADING ROUTES TO THE EAST AND THE SUB-CONTINENT.

DURBAN’S PROXIMITY TO THE GAUTENG MINERAL-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AND THE COMMERCIAL CAPITAL OF JOHANNESBURG, AND AN ECONOMIC LINK INTO SOUTHERN AFRICA, MAKES IT AN ATTRACTIVE INVESTMENT DESTINATION.

WITH THE FOUR MAJOR SECTORS OF THE ECONOMY BEING MANUFACTURING, TOURISM, FINANCE AND TRANSPORT, WE HAVE A STRONG PRESENCE IN ADVANCED SECTORS OF THE ECONOMY.

MANUFACTURING, WHICH CONTRIBUTES ABOUT 30% OF THE LOCAL ECONOMY, HAS HISTORICALLY BEEN LOCATED TO THE SOUTH OF OUR CBD IN OUR IDUSTRIAL BASIN.

MORE RECENTLY, THIS HAS BEEN SPREADING TO THE WEST AND EXTENT TO THE NORTH OF THE CITY WHERE MODERN SHOPPING MALLS AND BUSINESS CENTRES SERVES OUR ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE.

TOURISM, ANOTHER STRONG SECTOR ADDS 24% TO THE LOCAL ECONOMY AND IS CONCENTRATED ALONG THE COAST.
DURBAN IS THE HOME OF THE ANNUAL INDABA TRAVEL TRADE AND TOURISM EXHIBITION THAT ATTRACTS MORE THAN 20 000 DELEGATES, VISITORS AND INVESTORS EACH YEAR.

COMMERCIAL SERVICES SUCH AS BANKING, INSURANCE AND OTHER FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES ARE WELL DEVELOPED.

TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION IS THE FOURTH BIGGEST SECTOR CONTRIBUTING ABOUT 14% TO THE ECONOMY OF OUR REGION.

WE HAVE SUBSTANTIAL AND FAST GROWING LESS FORMAL ECONOMY ALTHOUGH MUCH OF IT¹S CURRENT GROWTH IS FOCUSED IN LOWER INCOME JOBS. WE HAVE A GROWING ‘SECOND ECONOMY’ MADE UP OF STREET VENDORS, COTTAGE INDUSTRIES AND BEAD MAKING AND HANDICRAFTS RUN MAINLY BY RURAL WOMEN.

THE FINANCIAL ENVIRONMENT: LOCAL GOVERNMENT WITHIN OUR MUNICIPAL REGION OPERATES FROM A SOUND FINANCIAL FOOTING WITH STRONG FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN PLACE.

OUR CITY COUNCIL CURRENTLY HOLDS ASSETS OF ALMOST R8.8 BILLION AND HAS AN ANNUAL EXPENDITURE OF CLOSE TO R8 BILLION. ABOUT R1.3 BILLION OF THE CITY COUNCIL EXPENDITURE IS DEVOTED TO CAPITAL INVESTMENT WITH THE BALANCE USED FOR OPERATING EXPENSES.

THE TWINNING OF DURBAN AND CHENNAI COULD MARK A FOLLOW UP JOURNEY AKIN TO THE ENTERPRISING SPIRIT OF THE FIRST BATCH OF ECONOMIC MIGRANTS WHO ENTERED THE AFRICAN LANDSCAPE TO ENSURE THAT THIS EVERLASTING RELATIONSHIP TAKES ON A NEW MEANING OF SOUTH-SOUTH AND CITY-TO-CITY SOCIO-ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION.

IN MY CLOSING REMARKS, I ONCE AGAIN THANK OUR HOSTS FOR GIVING ME THIS WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY TO ADDRESS YOU ON BEHALF OF OUR DELEGATION AND THE CITY OF DURBAN.

MAY OUR RELATIONSHIP AND SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC TOES TAKING PLACE ON THIS HISTORIC DAY PAVE THE WAY FOR PROSPEROUS PARTNERSHIPS THAT WILL CREATE AN ENABLING CLIMATE BETWEEN THE PEOPLE OF CHENNAI AND DURBAN.

I THANK YOU.

Presentation Paper researched and written for the Office of the Deputy Mayor and Councillor Logie Naidoo , eThekwini Municipality, City of Durban, South Africa on the ANC PBF South Africa-India Trade Delegation to Chennai, South India from 13-17 November 2010 and the Twinning of Durban and Chennai and unveiling of 1860 plaque by Marlan Padayachee, in association with Amanda Cele, Sally Nene-Mbhele, Pinky Naidoo, Sibusiso Ngema, all of GreenGold Africa Communications: greengold@mtnloaded.co.za/ (031) 266 2134/ 073 625 8247/ 078 076 8121/ 078 2453579/fax 00 27 31 266 8592.

Language is one of the main seeds of a person’s ethnic identity.

2011-01-09T22:50:00.000-08:00

By Marlan Padayachee and Rita Abraham

Language is one of the main seeds of a person’s ethnic identity

GOPIO CONFERENCE TOPIC: ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF MOTHER LANGUAGES IN THE INDIAN DIASPORA AND THE REVIVAL OF OUR ANCESTRAL LANGUAGES’ PRESENTED BY MS RITA ABRAHAM, SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESSWOMAN, FINANCIAL ADVISOR, FOUNDER OF WOMEN’S GROUP FORTE SOUTH AFRICA, PHILANTHROPIST, INTERFAITH, HUMANITARIAN AND CHARITY WORKER

Mr President

Honourable Conference Chairperson

Distinguished Delegates, Guests, Stakeholders, Role-players

All Protocols Observed

Ladies and Gentlemen, I come from the land of Nelson Mandela where Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi taught us the language of love, peace, tolerance, respect, self-dignity and Satyagraha (nonviolent protest).

South Africa is much as a cultural melting pot as India, the ancient land of mother tongue and ancestral languages and dialects, except that the scale of economies is much smaller as compared to the great cultural bastion that sits majestically in the South Asian bloc of culturally-enriched nations like China.

It is therefore with a deep sense of pride and patriotism that I wish to greet you in the indigenous languages of our rainbow nation that so many of you in Indian and the Diaspora communities revere and admire because of our historical ties, our love for secularism and cultural diversity and our propensity for peace, freedom and human rights.

Let me begin in my own mother tongue languages:

· Vannakam

· Namaskarumu

· Namaste

Coming back to the country of diverse languages and dialects, let me share some traditional greetings with you.

In the language of our colonial rulers, I would say to this global gathering:

· ‘Hello, how are you?’ – in English.

· ‘Hello, hoe gaan dit, boetie or sissie?’ – in the language of our apartheid rulers – Afrikaans.

Imagine, how the Gandhian teaching of tolerance has taught us to respect the two languages that were the currency of oppression, exploitation and human suffering.

Along with English and Afrikaans, we have nine other indigenous African languages.

Alongside English, isiZulu is the currency of our social cohesion, economics and politics in my homeland of Kwazulu Natal.

So, I will continue to greet, by saying ‘Sawubona, unjani? – in isiZulu.

Again, it’s ‘Hello, how are you?’

· In Xhosa, I would say: ‘Molo, kunjani?’

· Lotjhani, Unjani? – in Ndebele.

· Dumela, O kae? – in Sepedi, and the same in Sotho or Tswana.

· Sawubona, kunjani? – in Swati

· Ndaa, vho vuwa hani? – in Venda

· Avuxeni, Ku njhani? – in Tsonga.

Ladies and Gentlemen, our march to freedom and human dignity began with much frenzy and fanfare on the 27^th of April 1994.

Our political leaders who were engaged in dialogue, despite the differences of languages, drew a great deal of wealth and knowledge from how Gandhi, along with Jawharlal Nehru and other distinguished Indian and African leaders had mapped out the road to self-rule from colonialism and later apartheid.

There was quite uproar, an air sceptism and cynicism when the constitutional writers and lawmakers of our fledgling, new democracy emerged with a resolution that the new South Africa shall be governed by 11 languages, including the colonial-apartheid currency of English and Afrikaans.

As some of the leading linguists and academics gathered here will attest that post-colonial India, like post-apartheid South Africa, had embarked on a major reformist agenda of realigning the local and national landscapes of our nations whose ancient history, ancestral footprints, cultural heritage, indigenous languages, were bombarded, if not bastardised, by the language of cultural imperialism.

As newly independent India began the process of creating Indian states at the start of self-rule in 1947, languages played a part in redefining the geo-political landscapes.

A bunch of some the present-day India’s states boundaries created were based on the boundaries of the main Indian languages as recognized by the Indian constitution.

But, the Indian constitution uses the term ‘mother tongue’ instead of language or dialect.

We have legislated it as ‘languages’ as opposed to ‘mother tongue’.

By definition and description, ‘mother tongue’ is the language first learned by a child; and a language from which another has evolved.

Like India, independent South Africa placed a high premium of languages and dialects as a key driver of constitutional reform and political changes.

We, too, as much as we celebrate of our sea of colour, cuisine and cultural diversity, have come to recognise and respect ‘language’ as one of the main seeds of a person’s ethnic identity.

The Indian Constitution recognizes 18 official Indian languages.

Though the process of creating states based on languages began in 1953, I understand that up to the present day, there are still demands for new states for different language speakers in India.

The South African Constitution recognizes 11 official languages that is spread over nine provinces, and each or more that is unique to a particular geo-political region of our small, but yet vast country that stands as the gateway to a multi-lingual Africa.

Why, may you wonder or ponder that a community that has played such a powerful role in South Africa’s freedom struggle do not have any of the one Indian languages recognized in our national language framework?

I can assure you that the Indian languages that define the South African Indian, such as Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Gujerati and Urdu are fully recognized in the South African Constitution alongside religious freedom and practice in our secular society.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I hail from a province where the common currency is isiZulu, the dominant language of the majority Zulu-speaking people whose forebears were led by the legendary King Shaka.

In terms of the dynamics of this particular language that is home to millions of Zulu-speaking Africans, it is therefore imperative and important for my fellow Indian compatriots that make up the majority Indian concentration in KwaZulu-Natal to learn to speak the language of a region where the majority of South Africa’s 1, 3 million Indians reside in the City of Durban.

Like in India, provinces in South Africa are defined on regions whose boundaries are based on languages, for example isiZulu for KwaZulu, or Sotho, Xhosa or Ndebele for Gauteng, the country’s economic and infrastructural hub, and in the Indian context, Kerala for Malyalam speakers; Tamil Nadu for Tamil speakers; Karnataka for Kanadda speakers; Andra Pradesh for Telugu speakers; Maharashtra for Marathi speakers; Orissa for Oriya speakers; West Bengal for Bengali speakers; Gujarat for Gujarati speakers; Punjab for Punjabi speakers; Assam for Assami speakers, etc.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have shared this component of our culturally enriching nation, in comparison with India, and the context of ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF MOTHER LANGUAGES IN THE INDIAN DIASPORA AND THE REVIVAL OF OUR ANCESTRAL LANGUAGES’ to bring home the point that as members of the Indian Diaspora, South African Indians can no longer survive by living and working in a void or an ethno- cultural bubble of their own.

The very nature of South Africa’s constitutional and cultural reform calls on Indian South Africans to assimilate to the national psyche of an evolving, emerging, nonracial, non-discriminatory and democratic society.

We have to blend our language spectrum in order to share of legacy of language with our fellow citizens and compatriots.

If at all, we have succeeded in making a Zulu-speaking citizen, Patrick Ngcobo to sing and play carnatic music in the Indian vernacular language, then we have made a small beginning to towards sharing the richness of our language with African people.

However, Indian South Africans are a unique and colourful community which has the capacity, in line with the Indian Government’s progressive, nation-building and cultural exchange policies and programmes, to share our legacy of language with the rest of South Africa’s diverse population tapestry.

We need the global platform of GOPIO and to an extent the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas programme that honours the day Gandhiji returned to India from South Africa to ensure that a free India will transcend the barriers of language and culture so that all Indians will speak in one language, the language of progress, peace and prosperity.

So, what a better time in history it has been to share the Indian language and legacy with the rest of our nation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 2010 marked the 150^th year of the arrival of the Indian indentured labourers in South Africa.

This milestone was celebrated and commemorated throughout the country in a colourful pageantry of song, dance, culture and cuisine in which everyone spoke the language of cultural diversity, nation-building, peace and prosperity.

When ‘Coolie Number One’ 30-year-old Christian-Indian Davuram from Madras stepped off the SS Truro and set foot on the shores of Durban, a new language was born of the shores of Durban.

And when the second indentured labourer on the ship’s manifest, 18-year-old Naguram, probably his wife, and their two children, four-year-old Kubay, and one-year-old Elizabeth, the seedlings of a whole new cultural identity was to spread across the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Hidden in the treasure troves of the trunks they carried into a brave new beginning, the semi-slaves cherished the books of religious studies and teachings, the Holy Bible, the Sanskrit template, the Bhagavad Gita, the Kurrukal, and ancient literature, folklores, scripts and musical scores.

By the time the last Indian touched our soil, more than 200 000 Indians had arrived in Durban, all carrying with them the cultural and literary wealth of India.

Therefore, with much pride, on Tuesday, 16^th November, 2010, Indian communities all over South Africa celebrated and commemorated these founding pioneers, who together with the other batch of Indians on board the ships, have today been judged by history for the enormous contribution to building and sustaining one of the most dynamic Diaspora communities outside India.

To the indigenous local people or the colonialists, this stoical band of sugar cane cutters spoke a strange, foreign language as they toiled from dawn to dusk under the African sun.

Through the ancient language of Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu, these Indian sub-groups survived the most horrendous human drama in living history to maintain and sustain these ancient languages and dialects; galvanise the community against naked racism and exploitation, erect monuments of worships to the Gods of language, peace, love, build schools to teach in the vernacular, sing in the vernacular and play from vernacular musical notes.

Even Christian-Indians prayed, praised, worshipped and sang in the vernacular, rendering religious songs and hymns in Tamil and Telugu.

In the broader picture of one community’s struggle to hold on to its language. not even the language restriction of apartheid for Indians to learn and speak the language of Afrikaans did not deter Indian South Africans from excelling in the mother tongue language.

English was, and still is, a currency of the economy to earn a living and get a better education.

But running almost parallel to the foreign languages and dialects of Africa, Indian South Africans continued to maintain the cultural link with Mother India or Thai Nadu, as we say in Tamil or Telugu, and we continue to seek religious and cultural succour from what many of Indian South Africans may still refer to India as the ‘motherland’.

Despite successive attempts to take Indian languages off the curriculum of the South African education system, the promoters and purveyors of the Indian languages and dialects have become the diehard custodians of an ancient language that defined the arrival and survival of Indians in South Africa – thanks largely to the skilful communication of the language the indentured labourers used to articulate their fears, hopes and expectations during one of the darkest periods in modern civilisation when indenture replaced slavery.

As part of the Indian Diaspora, we need to look to India and the 20-million Diaspora communities to maintain the language of our indentured and trading forebears.

India gave us more than a new nation outside the ‘motherland’.

Collectively and culturally, we have benefited from somen of the Indian languages that have a long literary history, such as Sanskrit, literature that is more than 5 000 years old, and my own mother tongue, Tamil that is 3 000 years old.

Therefore, Mr Chairperson, ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF MOTHER LANGUAGES IN THE INDIAN DIASPORA AND THE REVIVAL OF OUR ANCESTRAL LANGUAGES’ has to provide us with a new road map to navigate how generations of Indians to follow will learn to embrace the ancient languages and dialects that have come to define our progress, peace and prosperity in the post-modern economy and civilization.

We therefore have a moral or socio-religious responsibility and civic duty to hand down the legacy of this language that was first heard on the shores of the Bay of Durban on 16^th November 1860 to future generations of Indian South Africans.

After all, India is extremely rich in languages.

India is blessed by an uncountable number of languages and dialects that are spoken in towns, villages and cities across the sub-continent.

There are no less than 30 different languages along with 2 000 dialects that shapes and define India’s uniqueness as a cultural melting pot.

Like South Africa and many nations in the world, commercialism, industrialization and a bustling influence of multinationals in the local economy has made English into the most common language, after Hindi, from Sikkam to the Silicone Valley.

Quite fascinatingly, Hindi is spoken by more than 337 million people in India. The second most spoken Indian language is Bengali, being spoken by 70 million people.

In his evaluation and assessment of the Tamil Language and Murukan Worship in South Africa, Professor S Subramaniyan, wrote: “The life and breath of every individual are his mother language. This may be identified with signs or words which help to communicate. Language attains its real strength, power and divinity by its relationship with the Supreme One through prayer and the philosophy of worldly life.

This relationship between the individual and God guides one to attain power and strength for material and spiritual purposes, for which language helps. It also becomes an effective tool to all people in their various walks of life.”

I trust through my story-telling and narration that I wish to conclude that the topic of ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF MOTHER LANGUAGES IN THE INDIAN DIASPORA AND THE REVIVAL OF OUR ANCESTRAL LANGUAGES’ is as relevant and appropriate for the Indian Diaspora, alongside India and South Africa, to embark on a cultural journey across the world to promote and perpetuate the ancient languages, mother tongue and dialects that have come to define our collective cultural richness.

I thank you for this privilege of addressing you and may I leave these inspiring words with you: “As I age with, my maturing and wisdom has inspired me to read Buddhist teachings, the compassionate chapters of the Holy Qu’ran, the parables of the Bible and beautiful verses of the Bhagavad Gita.”

Language is one of the main seeds of a person’s ethnic identity.

Thank you

Nandrie

Dhanyavadalu

Dhanyavaad

Shukriyaa

Ngiyabonga

Ends

Speech researched, conceptualised and written for Rita Abraham, managing-director of South Africa Insurance, founder of Forte, South Africa’s women empowerment lobbying group, and leading motivational speaker, member of the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO), by Marlan Padayachee and GreenGold Africa Communications, greengold@mtnloaded.co.za, marlan.padayachee@gmail.com, + 00 27 31 266 4293; 266 2134; facsimile: 00 27 31 266 8592; PO Box 346 Pavilion 3611 South Africa.

Tribute to an old-school teacher Samuel Reuben

2010-12-22T05:06:00.000-08:00

Tributes for Samuel Reuben

By Marlan Padayachee, on behalf of remedial teacher Venilla 'Pinky' Padayachee

Hundreds of mourners heard glowing tributes about former Durban principal Samuel Lawrence Reuben, of Malvern, who died after a long illness, aged 78, last week.

Messages were received from several people here and abroad.

Playwright and author Ron ie Govender recounted Reuben’s community activities in Cato Manor in the 1950s, saying the veteran teacher had served education, soccer and community arts and culture with distinction before the Group Areas Act uprooted communities and relocated them to Chatsworth.

After his retirement, Reuben relocated from his Havenside home to Malvern in the Queensburgh area.

Paying tribute at the funeral service at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Umbilo at the weekend, Dr David Charles sketched Reuben’s life’s work, saying as a religious personality and humanitarian, Reuben rose to the pinnacle of the Christian movement and he was credited for raising funds for worthy causes.

Family friend Marlan Padayachee described the former Parsee Rustomjee Primary School principal as one of the “last old-school headmasters” who combined the programmes of the classroom and the community in his efforts to promote education, mentorship, scholarship and good moral values.

“His humaneness that we today call Ubuntu; his generosity, kindness and his wonderful sense of humour endeared him to pupils, peers, parents and teachers,” he said.

He said Reuben’s actions and deeds had symbolised the stoicism, strength and morality of the pioneering 1860 Indian indentured labourers who had left behind a legacy of building schools for the community to ensure that Indians were an educated people.

Ends

A Colourful Community

2010-12-22T04:59:00.000-08:00

A colorful community
By Marlan Padayachee

In January 2009, local Indians began building bridges at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Global Indian Diaspora) Convention in Chennai, India, an occasion that provides an opportunity to examine the perennial identity crisis facing the Indian community in South Africa who will celebrate 150 years in South Africa in 2010.

The Indian community will celebrate a plethora of projects marking their 150-year co-existence in Africa, a far cry from the country they refer to as the motherland or Thai Nadu.

While older generations are emotional and sentimental about traditional and historical ties with Mother India, the younger generations seek jobs and lifestyles in Western democracies, leaving behind the baggage of the past.

On the flipside, the hybrid of labourers and traders has the capacity to fuse this milestone into a continental psyche that will herald the first kick-off of the 2010 Soccer World Cup and throw Africa into a euphoric explosion of football frenzy. Their culture contributes to our cosmopolitan society.

A community with a history and heritage can offer much more to a country with the complexities and challenges of economic empowerment, nation-building, poverty, crime and corruption.

During the reign of the British Raj, agriculturally skilled Indians were shipped to South Africa and other colonial outposts to turn sugar cane plantations into new economies for the imperial industrialists, hence the term “green gold”. Peasants, faced with grinding poverty, were lured via the colonial expansion to work on the railways, mines, agriculture and domestic services.

After the SS Truro dropped anchor in Durban Bay on November 16, 1860 with the first batch, shiploads of semi-skilled slaves, professionals and merchants were ferried in droves. The economic migration ended 50 years later. The pioneers gave birth to a new generation, the largest outside India.

While the stoical semi-slaves transformed the green fields into gold for sugar barons, traders and craftsmen gave Indians an economic and capitalist face on this edge of the Indian Ocean rim.

It took a visionary, MK Gandhi, to change the complexion of how the business and the underclass Indians would map out their survival strategy and destiny in the face of discrimination that was also meted out to indigenous people.

In an Indian diaspora of 20 million, the local community stands out for a variety of reasons, with political resistance and an enterprising spirit ranking high.

The “uniqueness” comes from the work culture that they inherited from their forebears, always resilient in the face of adversity. Credibility came by siding with the oppressed masses. With this al-liance, they got rid of the colonial-apartheid leg irons.

Staving off repatriation, they sacrificed so much for so many people to enjoy freedom, social justice and human rights, making them a cut above the rest in the global village.

On the other side of the coin, the grass is no longer greener for working-class Indians, now in a similar position to poorer black workers.

Although Indians today are a formidable presence, enjoying social cohesion and economic advantage, and continue to influence business and politics, the legacy of the 1860 descendants has been left behind by change.

Or did the winds of an epoch-making transformation push Indians onto the margins of the economically empowered black mainstream, in sharp contrast to the role they played in the resistance to apartheid?

With 800 000 Indians in KwaZulu-Natal, 2010 still provides an excellent exhibition to showcase their 150 years.

Politically, the Indian swing vote is important to the national ballot, being split between the African National Congress and its dissident Congress of the People formation, and a variety of opposition parties.

Conservative by nature, Indians blow hot and cold. Always apolitical, they are cautious and put “place bets” on the political roulette wheel. They need to assimilate themselves into the nation’s heartbeat.

Yet of 1, 3 million Asians, two percent of South Africa’s population of 47 million, Indians are in the majority.

When they arrived from colonial India, they were termed Indian South Africans. At the Global People of Indian Origin gathering, they were called South Africans of Indian origin. They have evolved via political resistance to Indian-African or African-Indian.

Notwithstanding the sentimental journey, emotional bloodlines and poignant history, culminating in the triumphal spirit of humanity, the identity crisis is a post-apartheid challenge. This is further complicated by a strong identification with Bollywood, heart-throbbing ethnic music, spicy cuisines, sweetmeats and saris, demonstrating that the umbilical cord with Mother India is still intact.

That’s why a contingent of Indians had been busy lobbying at the Chennai Convention, hoping to sharpen their profiles, forge business opportunities and explore their ancestry. Significantly, Chennai is the port where mainly Tamil and Telugu-speaking labourers from the Madras presidency sailed for the “bay by the water”, and began to push into Africa.

Today, a legacy lives in the hearts and minds of a people whose forebears toiled from dawn to dusk under the African sun.

Marlan Padayachee is an independent journalist and socio-political commentator in South Africa.

Leave race issue out of it

2010-04-07T00:03:00.000-07:00

2009-10-10T03:14:00.000-07:00

Durban Welcomes World's Statisticians

2009-08-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

VOTE OF THANKS BY HIS WORSHIP, COUNCILLOR OBED MLABA, MAYOR OF THE ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY, SOUTH AFRICA, AT OPENING CEREMONY OF THE 57th SESSION OF THE ISI CONFERENCE AT THE DURBAN ICC ON 16 AUGUST 2009.

Thank You, Programme Director.

Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I wish to recognise the leadership of the International Statistics Institute and the South African local organising committee.

Before I proceed any further with my vote of thanks, I would like to take this opportunity to pay homage to one of the finest mathematicians South Africa ever produced, Professor Thamsanqa Wilkinson Kambule, who recently passed away at the age of 88.

Despite the horrendous impact apartheid had on black people, the likes of the elder statesman of education, who mentored and inspired anti-apartheid luminaries such as the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Reverend Frank Chikane and a generation of disadvantaged leaders and activists, had succeeded in reaching the pinnacle of academic excellence.

The reality that ISI-2009 has arrived today is a testimony to the worldwide resolve to rid the world of this horrific brand of racial discrimination and prejudice.

But let me also extend a vote of thanks to Statistician-General, Mr Pali Lehohla and the rest of his team at Statistics South Africa for choosing Durban as the preferred venue to host this gathering of scientists.

I am told that since its formation 124-year ago, this association is meeting for the very first time in sub-Saharan Africa.

As the Mayor of the eThekwini Metropole, I have pleasure in performing this civic duty and taking this opportunity of extending a warm and cordial welcome to all our distinguished delegates to this, the 57th world session of the International Statistics Institute.

I am pleased that Durban will go down as the dateline and destination for the significant gathering of global players in the statistical field and those developments relevant to shaping the world-wide statistical agenda will be discussed in this great hall.

It is most heartening that the world continues to look to Africa and that the ISI has headlined this conference “Siyabonga Africa”.

I join the people of Durban in saying: “Siyabonga ISI-2009”.

As a growing convention city on the edge of the Indian Ocean Rim, Durban has clinched a string of “first in Africa” bids of world conventions, congresses, concerts and sports championships in the past dozen years.

Let me assure you that, as someone who has implicit faith in Africa’s ability to deliver world-class events, this continent is imbued with humanity and home-grown hospitality to ensure that you enjoy an unforgettable African experience.

Also, the ISI-2009 Conference could not have come at a better time for our province of KwaZulu Natal.
Delegates are visiting at a time when Durban has less than 300 days to welcome hundreds of thousands of local and foreign football fans to the 2010 FIFA World Cup to be held under the pan-African banner of “Ke Nako – Celebrating Africa’s Humanity!”

I hope that the soccer fans among the statisticians will join us again next year.

As a progressive city government committed to its 2020 Vision of ensuring that Durban enjoys the reputation of being Africa’s most caring and liveable city, I am proud that the City continues to host important conferences which bring together delegates from around the world.

Programme Director, Durban is known as South Africa’s playground and our delegates will get to witness this for themselves.

We will be throwing an exciting beach party for all of you on Tuesday.

I am confident that when all is said and done during the many sessions of your scientific discussions, including an extraordinary session on women in statistics, delegates will enjoy our sights and sounds while relaxing and experiencing an exotic taste of our cuisine, culture and hospitality.

I invite you to take a peep at the Moses Mabhida World Cup Soccer Stadium to get a sense of our unprecedented development since becoming a democratic state.

Our list of sightseeing and tourism icons, coupled with restaurants and pubs and major shopping malls are endless.

From the fascinating eco-friendly tourist zone of the Ushaka Marine World to the thunderous beats of Zulu culture, heritage and legacy in the Valley of the Thousand Hills, delegates will certainly receive value for money at these recommended tourist high spots.

Finally, I extend my best wishes to all the participants as you prepare to spend the next seven days discussing and debating issues ranging from the challenge of building a supply of statisticians for the future to tackling how many official statistical agencies are faced with the accelerating challenges to build and maintain the range of statisticians that are required to meet the ever increasing challenges of modern statistical offices.

Durban, South Africa and Africa will benefit from your intellectual and technical inputs, intervention and sharing of your diverse knowledge economy.

With these few words of good wishes and goodwill, I place on record the city’s gratitude and thanks to one and all that have made this conference an African reality today.

I Thank You.

Durban Mayor Salutes Imagine Durban Team

2009-08-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

Message from Political Leadership
By City of Durban Mayor
His Worship Councillor
Obed Mlaba

At the outset, I wish to acknowledge the work of the Imagine Durban team during its 2007-2009 term in raising the profile on the eThekwini Municipality’s commitment to current global issues such safer and sustainable cities, climate change, energy saving, conservation, environment and greenhouse gas emissions.

Spearheaded by the city’s Corporate Policy Unit, the roll-out of the Demonstration Project reached many communities and created enormous awareness on environmental issues in the urban and rural areas of the Greater Durban Region in the past two years.

Through our partnership with the Canadian International Development Agency, the eThekwini Municipality led a successful community-driven initiative on integrated, long-term planning for Durban. I am pleased that this project, implemented in conjunction with Sustainable Cities, a Non- Governmental Organisation from Vancouver, Canada, and the PLUS Network of 35 cities in 14 countries, provided Durban with an international platform of sharing experiences in sustainability planning and sustainable community development.
An added boost to the project was Durban’s hosting of a conference on Sustainable Cities in 2008. After South Africa hosted the first World Summit on Sustainability at the turn of the new century, Durban became one of the first global cities to have signed protocols on Sustainability and Climate Change.
As a progressive city, the political leadership and the municipal administration are guided by the city’s 2020 vision that reads: "By 2020, eThekwini Municipality will enjoy the reputation of being Africa’s most caring and liveable city, where all citizens live in harmony. This Vision will be achieved by growing its economy and meeting people’s needs so that all citizens enjoy a high quality of life with equal opportunities, in a city that they are truly proud of.”

As a city that cares for its citizens and the environment and that is why as a city government we remain committed to transforming Durban into a truly sustainable city by striving to achieve the following key focal areas and themes:

· Creating a safer city;
· Ensuring a more environmentally sustainable city;
· Promoting an accessible city;
· Creating a city where all enjoy sustainable livelihoods;
· Fostering a more caring and empowering city;
· Celebrating the city’s cultural diversity, history and heritage;
Through Durban’s Long Term Planning for City Sustainability, I am confident that the publication, The Power of Imagination, published by the Corporate Policy Unit, will chronicle the short history of the Imagine Durban project and bring to the public domain the 50 Lessons from Durban, South Africa.

May the “Imagine” concept continue to highlight Durban’s commitment to change ahead of the United Nations’ Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.
Hopefully, Africa’s contribution, concerns and perspectives to the governmental negotiations will lead to the formation of a continental network on environmental and Climate Change issues.

Message researched and written by Marlan Padayachee, Amanda Cele,Sally Nene, Sibusiso Ngema, all of GreenGold Africa Communications, on behalf of the Mayor’s Office, City of Durban, eThekwini Municipality, for the Durban’s Long-Term Planning for City Sustainability, Power of Imagination publication by the Corporate Policy Unit, 7 August 2009 / www.greengoldcom.com/ greengold@mtnloaded.co.za 083 796 1762/ 083 797 1762/ 031 266 0178, 266 5599 (telefax)

Durban's Little India

2009-04-21T23:35:00.001-07:00

Grey Street lost colour as a landmark.(News)
Article from:
Post (South Africa)
Article date:
March 25, 2009 Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2009 Independent News & Media PLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
IN THE February 15, 1996, issue of POST, political reporter Marlan Padayachee wrote that "Durban's Grey Street, one of South Africa's most colourful landmarks, appeared to be slowly losing its niche market as a 'Little India' under the African sun".
He stated criminal activities, including snatching of gold chains from Indian women, had resulted in a substantial drop in the number of shoppers and tourists visiting the unique street.
He added "the city's world famous 1km stretch of sari and sweetmeat shops, takeaway curry and rice cornershops, tuk-tuks and taxis, cobblers and clothing stores, mosques and temples, was a dividing line where East met West".
Economic ...

They Danced in the Rain for Zuma's Socialist Nirvana

2009-04-15T22:59:00.000-07:00

By Marlan Padayachee

HLUHLUWE is an unlikely place to be visiting on Easter Monday.

Hailed as a tourism magnet because it is home to the Big Five wildlife celebrities and the sacred wetlands, morning broke with a cacophony of hustle and bustle in the one-horse town. At the crossroads of this pineapple town, two worlds greet each other locals and visitors eye one another.

A microcosm of our society was coming alive. Whites were busy in their own world, filling up their tanks and stomachs. Blacks were working and others milling around, preparing for the big day in a town where the poor and jobless witness wealth on wheels.

Hauntingly, a picture of the old country began emerging on the grey skyline with rain threatening the day’s spoils of the new country.

Suddenly, the central hub around the petrol station and convenience centre gets busier with SUVs, with caravans and trailers in tow, competing with mini-bus taxis and buses for space.

Over the holy weekend, holidaymakers lapped up the beauty of the Big Five - lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhino and other species of indigenous game, they marveled at the flight of pink flamingoes skimming over the Umfolozi. The day dawned for the homeward-bound trek back to the reality check of life in a rainbow country blurred by a fourth democratic election, shrinking currency, fuel shortage sparked by striking truck drivers and the daily diet and dossier of crime, corruption and poor service delivery.

A hearty American breakfast was in order as waiters rushed around, delivering piping hot plates of bacon, eggs and boerwors and steaming coffee.

The visitors appear to be oblivious of the unfolding drama taking place in the town centre, as if they had just visited another world on the edge of a paradise, a seamless catalogue of the sights and sounds of thousands of hectares of animals and birds.

Here in the heartland of the amaZulu country, traditional home of the descendants of the world’s renowned warrior-king, Shaka, the black townsfolk were preparing for a battle royal of new proportions.

This time there are two bulls in a China shop.

A giant colour poster of the old elephant of the north, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, welcomes people as if the Inkatha Freedom Party leader has just been given the freedom of the town. Elsewhere, there were scatterlings of the ANC’s picture-poster image of the new lion of post-apartheid politics, Jacob Zuma.

Both giants are wrestling for control of KwaZulu Natal. This is the heart of the amaZulu country where the country’s isiZulu-speaking presidential frontrunner is taking on the main opposition in their own battleground.

Hluhluwe was preparing for the Big Man. Thousands of young and old supporters, sporting bright yellow and green “Zuma for President” T-shirts, and waving flags bearing the picture of the cadre-commander who would become South Africa’s next political king, were ferried through the town in buses and mini-buses.

Brand ANC had rolled into town. Four sleek Mini Coopers, branded highly in the green, yellow and black colours of the ruling party, formed the security buffer strip between the proletariat and the political elite.

The spirit of this Easter Monday, unlike the sleepy hollow environment of years gone by, had resurrected a new energy in toy-toying politics. The young outnumbered the old as they jived in the pelting rain, waiting for the Black Jesus to bring them the Promised Land.

With a new burst of hope in their eyes, they danced to a new ritual and renaissance. A messiah was coming to town to bring good tidings for long overdue rural development, jobs and economic spin-offs.

But the crowds waited and waited, investing sweat equity for four hours in the intermittent rain with the only blessing coming from some sunshine.

Hundreds of kilometres away in the Inkatha strongholds of Ingavuma and Jozini, the singing president-in-waiting was winning the hearts and minds of voters to secure the traditional homeland again.

Then a shiny blue bird hovers over the dusty town. The ululating crowds go wild with excitement. To the rhythms of popular lyrics praising the Big Man, the election road show shifts into top gear.

With the electioneering out of the way, the support of the Amakhosi in the bag, the rally is boosted by four female defectors swopping their lackluster IFP T-shirts for the bright green and yellow apparel of the ANC.

A firm presidential pledge to deliver a “Better Life for All” falls far short of their collective expectations.

They had not waited in vain in a day of diabolical climate change to whet their appetites with bread and butter politics. They were waiting for Msholozi’s grandstanding of “Lethu Mshini Wami” (Bring me my machine gun) as he tap-danced his way around the stage to the beat of the homebred hitsong that has become the trademark of his meteoric rise (the fall is history) to African political royalty.

The ANC, more than the emerging opposition coalition bloc, will face the litmus test of delivering a socialist nirvana to the voters after the 22 April poll. Maybe, Christmas may come early to Hluhluwe.

Ends

Focus on Local Economic Development in KwaZulu Natal

2009-03-18T21:50:00.001-07:00

By Marlan Padayachee, Speechwriter to the Deputy Mayor of the City of Durban, Logie Naidoo

Opening and Welcome Address by Councillor Logie Naidoo, Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the Economic and Development Committee of the eThekwini Municipality City of Durban, South Africa, at the Annual LED Conference at the International Convention Centre, Durban, on Tuesday, 17 March 2009 at 08h30.

Thank You, Programme Director, Ms Carol Coetzee, Head of the Department of Economic Development.

Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests and Honorary Guests and Stakeholders.

I am pleased as Chairperson of the eThekwini Municipality’s Economic and Development Committee and the city’s Deputy Mayor to bid all of you a warm welcome to the Annual Local Economic Development Conference piloted by the KwaZulu-Natal’s Finance and Local Development Department.

May I take this opportunity of thanking our counterparts in the provincial government for choosing Durban as the convention city for this all-important conference, taking place at a time when world markets are jittery and there are growing concerns about our own local economy and its strategic development in this region.

I am sure that after last night’s opening banquet and social and business networking at this venue that the local organising committee and delegates are inspired to ring in the changes and give new meaning to the conference theme, “Together, Accelerating Local Economic Development”.

It is also encouraging for our local economy when a big-brand bank like Nedbank signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Economic Development that demonstrates another chapter to government’s enterprising strategy of locking in the private sector in our public sector initiatives and projects.

As you may agree, government alone cannot overcome the post-apartheid challenges of service delivery and the realigning of the socio-economic landscapes that contradict our city, regions and country.

The African National Congress, for its part as the majority party in the eThekwini Municipality, fully supports the cut and thrust of our election manifesto: “Working Together, We Can Do More.”

On that note, it is with a sense of pride and pleasure that I officially welcome one and all to Durban and wish you all the best in your deliberations, debates, dissents and discourse, as you collectively contribute towards making a difference to the economic landscape.

I am therefore privileged and honoured to recognise and acknowledge the presence, participation and the leadership of the Honourable Premier of KwaZulu Natal, Comrade Doctor Sibusiso Joel Ndebele.

It is my pleasure to welcome and acknowledge the Honourable MEC for Finance and Economic Development, Comrade Doctor Zweli Mkhize.

I wish to welcome and recognise the contribution of the following role-players.

The Chief Director: Provincial & Local Government Infrastructure, National Treasury. Mrs Malijeng Ngqaleni.

The HOD for Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Ms Gabi Gumbi-Masilela.

Mr Jabulane Moremi of the Development Bank of South Africa’s LED Capacity Development Programme.

Mr Sihle Mkhize, General Manager: Economic Planning, DED

Dr L. P. Mondi, Chief Economist & Divisional Executive: Professional Services, IDC.

Ms Astrid Ludin of Finmark Trust

Mr N Dlamini of Save Act,

Mr Frikkie Brooks, General Manager: Development Planning of the Department of Local Government.

The HOD of for Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Ms Gabi Gumbi-Masilela

Ms Gabriele Trah of GTZ.

I also welcome all my colleagues, the District Mayors and Municipal Managers and Chief Financial Officers and as well the Business Leaders.

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Today’s conference, headlined by the relevance and timing of “Together, Accelerating Local Economic Development” should provide a perfect scenario for our pioneering government leaders, notably Dr Ndebele and Dr Mkhize, and our social and economic experts to provide a blueprint that will navigate this region into economic road map that will benefit our impoverished communities from the urban, peri-urban and rural areas.

I stand before you with a sense of optimism, despite the world credit crunch and looming job losses that presenters, participants and delegates will work as a team in a collective effort to provide us with economic solutions for a changing economic landscape.

The challenges and complexities are indeed onerous, but 15 years later, we have to continue our unique public-private sector partnership to ensure that we not only accelerate the local economy, but we accelerate service delivery to the millions of voters, constituencies and communities who believe that there is a “Better Life for All” – but the question is – How Soon?

Therefore, this Local Economic Development conference is ideally positioned to map out the kind of economic initiatives and imperatives that will begin to spell new hope for all our stakeholders.

I am confident that the April 22 election will provide the necessary stimulus for the new government leadership to pin-point the socio-economic priorities that will alter the present landscape of joblessness, poverty, homelessness, the perceived slowdown in the black economic empowerment arena, particularly for emerging entrepreneurs and the reluctance on the part of big business to provide opportunities and skills development training for previously disadvantaged people.

Now is the time, ladies and gentlemen, for the tripartite alliance of government, labour and the community to work together and make things happen to identify economic growth, create jobs, fast-track rural development and alleviate poverty.

Working Together, We Can Do More.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the eThekwini Municipality has made the economic development and growth of small, medium-sized and microenterprises its strong focal point in the past ten years.

Annually, the city’s Business Support Unit contributes R18-million of Durban’s R25-million budget towards stimulating the SMMEs through our yearly Small Business Fair that started with 40 SMMES.

Today, almost 350 SMMES participate in the Small Business Fair.

That’s not all: an average of 3 000 people supported the fair last year.

The fair provides a perfect platform for SMMEs, where emerging businesses look for opportunities for joint ventures for the purpose of business growth.
This, in turn, creates massive job opportunities for locals.
Our political commitment ensures that the municipality, within the city’s 2020 Vision, creates a viable and vibrant economic platform for our ‘Second Economy’ – represented largely by the SMMEs – to make headway in the current economic tidal wave.

Ten years later, the city continues to provide opportunities for SMMES – including disabled business people - to gain access to markets and to provide them with the necessary training and business networking opportunities both on a local and international level.
I am optimistic that despite the credit crunch and difficulties experienced in the local economy, this city-wide stimulus will accelerate the economic growth of black economic empowerment and SMMES will continue to be the lifeblood of our local economy as many of them strives to aspire for mainstream of the first economy.
Finally, the eThekwini Municipality salutes the MEC for Finance and Economic Development and his team at the department for pulling together this conference.
May today’s deliberations point us in the direction of economic recovery, progress and growth, and as a city government, the municipality will continue to play a powerful role in ensuring that our service delivery mechanism is in top gear to meet the aspirations and ambitions of so many people who are waiting to board the economic express to help government realise the dream of a “Better Life for All.”
These economic solutions and challenges can emerge from this conference and by “Working Together, We Can Do More.”
My best wishes to all the participants for a fruitful conference.
And remember that the accent is on acceleration.
I Thank You.
Speech researched and written for the Mayor’s Office, eThekwini Municipality 16 March 2009 by GreenGold Africa Communications: greengold@telkomsa.net/ www.greengoldcom.com/ 083 796 1762/ 083 797 1762 _______

The Centenary - A Class of Its Own in Durban

2009-03-18T21:46:00.000-07:00

By Marlan Padayachee, Speechwriter to the Mayor of Durban, Obed Mlaba
Opening Address by His Worship, Councillor Obed Mlaba, the Mayor of the eThekwini Municipality, at the opening of the Centenary Umhlanga Ridge New Town Centre on Tuesday, 17 March 2009, at 17h00.
Thank You, Programme Director.
Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests and Stakeholders.
Mr Carlos Correia, Chief Executive Officer of the Isolenu Group.
The representatives of Moreland and the Tongaat Huletts Group.
All Protocols Observed.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I stand before you as the Mayor of one of the fastest growing and developing cities in Africa.
In the past 15 years since the changing of the guard at the City Hall to what I believe is a truly progressive, people-centred and business-friendly city government, I have attended more sod-turning ceremonies and the opening of new buildings than before in my entire life.
This experience itself speaks for itself as far as how far we have come in our public-private sector partnership that was mooted by Nelson Mandela.
Each day, from the city’s skyline is changing.
Not in 15 years since we ushered democracy with a promise for a “Better Life for All”, I have not witnessed so many cranes dominating our skylines from Umbumbulu to Umhlanga.
From the pioneering development of Bridge City in the nearby Kwa Mashu/Ntuzuma Township to the Centenary in the New Town Centre in Umhlanga, the city’s landscape is undergoing phenomenal changes.
From the south to the north of the city’s coastal flanks leading up to the majestic development of the King Shaka International Airport and the Dube Tradeport, Durban is experiencing a real infrastructural and development boom for the first time in many decades.
The Centenary in the New Town Centre is now part of this exciting mix of socio-economic history that is taking place as central, provincial and municipal government work hand in hand to map out Durban’s 2020 Vision of creating a safer and sustainable city where all sectors of citizens, the rich and the poor, shall live and work in harmony in a changing society.
The versatility, style and modern design of the Centenary is an inspiring new asset to our city and our rapidly growing inner-city town centres such as the gilt-edged location of Umhlanga and its portfolio of big-brand businesses.
This evening, I wish to roundly congratulate the visionaries and developers of this magnificent project that has added new value to the city as we strive to put our best foot forward for the FIFA 2010 World Cup Soccer.
This project is the brainchild of a visionary company, Moreland and the Tongaat Huletts Group.
In years to come, the New Town Centre’s revolutionary design, functionality and affordability will be judged as one of the finest models for the future urban development planning in KwaZulu-Natal.
The Centenary’s form and beauty, aesthetically supplemented by a unique, bustling business environment and some of the finest residential developments and prestige golf estates, and encapsulating Old Mutual's extraordinary R1, 6 billion Gateway Theatre of Shopping, is certainly an attractive option for businesses looking for a world-class sectional title block.
While property developers and experts will agree with me that the concept of sectional title ownership has been foreign to our own investors.
Ladies and Gentlemen, once they view or hear about the Centenary, I am confident that local and foreign investors will snap up this popular option for sectional title office and industrial properties.
The answer is simple: This makes good business and economic sense because the cost is shared by all tenants.
Thank you, very much, for giving me and the eThekwini Municipality and opportunity to grace this opening ceremony and endorse this breathtaking project.
I extend our best wishes to the developers and tenants and may the Centenary stand out majestically in the sea of beauty and progress.
Finally, when the African National Congress says: “Working Together, We Can Do More” – we mean just that – May our public-private partnership continue in a spirit of trust and co-operation so that we can all deliver on the city’s 2020 vision to create jobs and provide a safer and sustainable city.
Kindly let me leave you with the words of wisdom from one of the world’s most daring entrepreneurs, Richard Branson who said:”Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming.”
I Thank You.
______________________________________________________________________________
Speech researched and written for the Mayor’s Office, eThekwini Municipality, City of Durban, South Africa 13 March 2009 by GreenGold Africa Communiactions: Marlan Padayachee/Sally Nene/Amanda Cele/ greengold@telkomsa.net/ www.greengoldcom.com 0837961762/0837971762/0312661762/
_________________________________________________________________________

Imagine Durbban Supports Earth Hour 2009

2009-03-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

By Marlan Padayachee, Imagine Durban

Imagine Durban supports Earth Hour 2009

Imagine Durban is supporting eThekwini Municipality participation in World Wildlife Foundation’s Earth Hour. The global campaign aims to get more than one-billion people in over 1 000 cities switching off lights between 8:30pm and 9:30pm on Saturday, 28 March.

Imagine Durban, a city council-driven initiative on integrated, long-term planning in coalition with Sustainable Cities and the PLUS Network has called on Durban households and businesses to support the campaign by switching off lights for an hour between 8.30 and 9.30pm. Pledge your support at www.earthhour.org.za

The lights-out awareness campaign that began in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, grew spectacularly last year when more than 50 million people in over 270 cities in over 35 countries responded positively to the clarion call to reduce the world’s high energy consumption that affects global climate change.

Imagine Durban is encouraging all home-owners, businesses and anyone who uses electricity to support Earth Hour by switching off lights and any other non-essential appliances. Residents and social groups are urged to organise fun, electricity-free events with friends and family to spend the ‘global hour’ discussing how they can reduce energy consumption by contributing to global warming and what government can do to address this problem.
Durban’s flagship venue, the International Convention Centre, will be in darkness for an hour on the night to raise awareness of how excessive use of energy affects climate change across the world.

Simultaneously, the city’s “Switch Off, Unplug and Save” public campaign is aimed at encouraging residents and business owners to use less electricity by saving 10 percent of their electricity consumption.

Global warming is caused by the emission of Carbon Dioxide and other Greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Eskom's electricity production accounts for over 60 percent of South Africa’s national greenhouse gas emissions.

Closer to home, climate change in Durban is expected to result in higher temperatures, more storms and rising sea levels, thereby increasing the risk of diseases, disruptions to agricultural systems and loss of life and damage to property through more floods and coastal storms.

150 Years of Indians in South Africa

2009-03-09T01:46:00.000-07:00

2010 A defining milestone for a colorful community
Marlan Padayachee comes from a long of chiefs and reflects on his ancestry and forebears ahead of 150 years of Indians in 2010 South Africa.

Dateline Durban: 2010 is an important year for South Africa. With the FIFA World Cup taking centre stage next winter, another significant, though on a smaller scale, will unfold across the country.

South Africa’s 1,3 million strong Indian community, will be commemorating and celebrating 150 years of their legacy, history and heritage as descendants of sugar cane slaves who were shipped by colonial India to Durban on 16 November 1860.

The community’s economic platform was also built by the traders and skilled artisan and teachers who followed one of the most epic journeys of human-labour cargo.

There are 25 million Indians outside India, with South Africa ranking among the most unique group in the Indian Diaspora.

The staging of the Miss India Worldwide Pageant in Durban this year, featuring Indian beauties from almost 25 countries, gives excellent cultural and performing arts portrayal of the community. This international pageant may be hosted in 2010 in Durban and Mauritius, where the first batch of Indians arrived with the rest landing in two ships and followed by hundreds of thousands until the 1900s.

Recently, local Indians built bridges at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Global Indian Diaspora) Convention in Chennai, India, an occasion that provides an opportunity to examine the perennial identity crisis facing SA’s Indians. This time next year the Indian community will celebrate a plethora of projects marking their co-existence in Africa, a far cry from the country they refer to as the motherland or Thai Nadu.While older generations are emotional and sentimental about traditional and historical ties with Mother India, the younger generations seek jobs and lifestyles in Western democracies, leaving behind the baggage of the past.On the flipside, the hybrid of labourers and traders has the capacity to fuse this milestone into a continental psyche that will herald the first kick-off of the 2010 Soccer World Cup and throw Africa into a euphoric explosion of football frenzy. Their culture contributes to our cosmopolitan society.A community with a history and heritage can offer much more to a country with the complexities and challenges of economic empowerment, nation-building, poverty, crime and corruption.During the reign of the British Raj, agriculturally skilled Indians were shipped to SA and other colonial outposts to turn sugar cane plantations into new economies for the imperial industrialists, hence the term “green gold”. Peasants, faced with grinding poverty, were lured via the colonial expansion to work on the railways, mines, agriculture and domestic services.After the SS Truro dropped anchor in Durban Bay on November 16, 1860, with the first batch, shiploads of semi-skilled slaves, professionals and merchants were ferried in droves. The economic migration ended 50 years later. The pioneers gave birth to a new generation, the largest outside India.While the stoical semi-slaves transformed the green fields into gold for sugar barons, traders and craftsmen gave Indians an economic and capitalist face on this edge of the Indian Ocean rim.It took a visionary, M. K. Gandhi, to change the complexion of how the business and the underclass Indians would map out their survival strategy and destiny in the face of discrimination that was also meted out to indigenous people.In the Indian Diaspora, the local community stands out for a variety of reasons, with political resistance and an enterprising spirit ranking high.The “uniqueness” comes from the work culture that they inherited from their forebears, always resilient in the face of adversity. Credibility came by siding with the oppressed masses. With this alliance, they got rid of the colonial-apartheid leg irons.Staving off repatriation, they sacrificed so much for so many people to enjoy freedom, social justice and human rights, making them a cut above the rest in the global village.On the other side of the coin, the grass is no longer greener for working-class Indians, now in a similar position to poorer black workers.Although Indians today are a formidable presence, enjoying social cohesion and economic advantage, and continue to influence business and politics, the legacy of the 1860 descendants has been left behind by change.Or did the winds of an epoch-making transformation push Indians onto the margins of the economically empowered black mainstream, in sharp contrast to the role they played in the resistance to apartheid?With 800 000 Indians in KwaZulu-Natal, 2010 still provides an excellent exhibition to showcase their 150 years.Politically, the Indian swing vote is important to the national ballot, being split between the African National Congress and its dissident Congress of the People formation, and a variety of opposition parties.Conservative by nature, Indians blow hot and cold. Always apolitical, they are cautious and put “place bets” on the political roulette wheel. They need to assimilate themselves into the nation’s heartbeat.Yet of 1, 3 million Asians, two percent of South Africa’s population of 47 million, Indians are in the majority.When they arrived from colonial India, they were termed Indian South Africans. At the Global People of Indian Origin gathering, they were called South Africans of Indian origin. They have evolved via political resistance to Indian-African or African-Indian.Notwithstanding the sentimental journey, emotional bloodlines and poignant history, culminating in the triumphal spirit of humanity, the identity crisis is a post-apartheid challenge. This is further complicated by a strong identification with Bollywood, heart-throbbing ethnic music, spicy cuisines, sweetmeats and saris, demonstrating that the umbilical cord with Mother India is still intact. Today, a legacy lives in the hearts and minds of a people whose forebears toiled from dawn to dusk under the African sun.
Marlan Padayachee, who covered President Mandela’s State Visit to India in 1995, is an international freelance journalist and social and political commentator who runs a media strategy consultancy in South Africa: greengold@telkomsa.net

Revisiting Rhodes University

2009-03-04T21:19:00.000-08:00

By Khaya Thonjeni
Schools Outreach Officer
Rhodes School of Journalism and Media Studies

Marlan Padayachee to apply for JMS Masters in 2010
Seasoned journalist Marlan Padayachee, who also heads GreenGold Africa Communications, was spotted reading a copy of Grocott’s Mail in the Africa Matrix Media building after an academic visit and meetings with Professors Larry Strelitz and Guy Berger. He was en-route from an assignment at the Lalibela Private Game Reserve when he revisited Grahamstown to discuss a part time study proposal for a Master’s degree at the JMS in 2010.
He shared his story of how apartheid blackballed him from studying journalism in the 1970s: “In terms of the Separate University Act and the Group Areas Act, I could not enrol at Rhodes University. I was directed to the Minister of Internal Affairs to apply for a special permit. It was politically incorrect to request a special dispensation when the rest of South Africa’s disenfranchised people were subjected to these discriminatory laws. However, I took sabbatical in 2000 from Independent Newspapers and some opportunities included coming to Rhodes as a visiting lecturer and I am grateful to Guy Berger for arranging that visit.”
“It’s time to bring closure on this chapter and work towards attaining an academic qualification from one of the world’s leading journalism schools,” says Padayachee, who earned a British Council Scholarship to study international journalism at London’s City University in the 1980s and was recognised for his brave reporting style during the apartheid and democracy era with the International Visitor’s Award from the American Government in the 1990s.
His involvement in the University of Natal’s Cultural and Media Studies in Durban in 2000 inspired him to promote the industry-institution linkage. In 2003, he started broad-based media consultancy where he writes speeches for mayors and government ministers, co-ordinates social responsibility projects for corporate firms and writes for a variety of publications locally and abroad.
For more information on how to enrol for a master’s degree click here.

Marlan Padayachee to Secure 2010 Host City for India Pageant

2009-02-19T19:30:00.001-08:00

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Miss India Worldwide 2010 in South Africa
Africa> Southern Africa, South AfricaNew accounts : Marketing & Media AccountsMarlan Padayachee GreenGold Africa Communications gains 2010 Miss India Worldwide Pageant account More accounts...Marlan Padayachee GreenGold Africa Communications gains 2010 Miss India Worldwide Pageant accountMarlan Padayachee GreenGold Africa Communications have been appointed by African Cultural Events and India Festival Committee New York to secure a host-city for the 2010 Miss India Worldwide Pageant, following the success of the 'House Full' 2009 Miss India Worldwide Pageant at Durban's SuncoastCasino Sundeck on Valentine's Day.

It's lights, camera, action

2009-01-10T21:21:00.001-08:00

© 1999 - 2009 Sunday Tribune & Independent Online (Pty) Ltd.

Published in The ISSUE Page – © Herald, Durban, South Africa, 11 Jan 2009.
It’s lights, camera, action
Speech Delivered by Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo, Published speech researched and written by Marlan Padayachee GreenGold Africa Communications, South Africa

Durban is trying to grab a slice of Bollywood action, with the launch of the Durban Film Office and Anant Singh’s plans for a R40 million film city. Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo revealed this in his paper, “Cultural entertainment and movie industry opportunities between India and Durban”, delivered at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Chennai 7-9 January 2009.
Read more on: www.wordsmith-commissar.blog spot.com

Indians - A Colourful Community

2009-01-10T20:33:00.000-08:00

A colorful community 08 Jan 2009 published in the Natal Witness, South Africa
Marlan Padayachee
This week local Indians are building bridges at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Global Indian Diaspora) Convention in Chennai, India, an occasion that provides an opportunity to examine the perennial identity crisis facing the Indian community in South Africa who will celebrate 150 years in South Africa in 2010. This time next year the Indian community will celebrate a plethora of projects marking their 150-year co-existence in Africa, a far cry from the country they refer to as the motherland or Thai Nadu.While older generations are emotional and sentimental about traditional and historical ties with Mother India, the younger generations seek jobs and lifestyles in Western democracies, leaving behind the baggage of the past.On the flipside, the hybrid of labourers and traders has the capacity to fuse this milestone into a continental psyche that will herald the first kick-off of the 2010 Soccer World Cup and throw Africa into a euphoric explosion of football frenzy. Their culture contributes to our cosmopolitan society.A community with a history and heritage can offer much more to a country with the complexities and challenges of economic empowerment, nation-building, poverty, crime and corruption.During the reign of the British Raj, agriculturally skilled Indians were shipped to South Africa and other colonial outposts to turn sugar cane plantations into new economies for the imperial industrialists, hence the term “green gold”. Peasants, faced with grinding poverty, were lured via the colonial expansion to work on the railways, mines, agriculture and domestic services.After the SS Truro dropped anchor in Durban Bay on November 16, 1860 with the first batch, shiploads of semi-skilled slaves, professionals and merchants were ferried in droves. The economic migration ended 50 years later. The pioneers gave birth to a new generation, the largest outside India.While the stoical semi-slaves transformed the green fields into gold for sugar barons, traders and craftsmen gave Indians an economic and capitalist face on this edge of the Indian Ocean rim.It took a visionary, M. K. Gandhi, to change the complexion of how the business and the underclass Indians would map out their survival strategy and destiny in the face of discrimination that was also meted out to indigenous people.In an Indian diaspora of 20 million, the local community stands out for a variety of reasons, with political resistance and an enterprising spirit ranking high.The “uniqueness” comes from the work culture that they inherited from their forebears, always resilient in the face of adversity. Credibility came by siding with the oppressed masses. With this al-liance, they got rid of the colonial-apartheid leg irons.Staving off repatriation, they sacrificed so much for so many people to enjoy freedom, social justice and human rights, making them a cut above the rest in the global village.On the other side of the coin, the grass is no longer greener for working-class Indians, now in a similar position to poorer black workers.Although Indians today are a formidable presence, enjoying social cohesion and economic advantage, and continue to influence business and politics, the legacy of the 1860 descendants has been left behind by change.Or did the winds of an epoch-making transformation push Indians onto the margins of the economically empowered black mainstream, in sharp contrast to the role they played in the resistance to apartheid?With 800 000 Indians in KwaZulu-Natal, 2010 still provides an excellent exhibition to showcase their 150 years.Politically, the Indian swing vote is important to the national ballot, being split between the African National Congress and its dissident Congress of the People formation, and a variety of opposition parties.Conservative by nature, Indians blow hot and cold. Always apolitical, they are cautious and put “place bets” on the political roulette wheel. They need to assimilate themselves into the nation’s heartbeat.Yet of 1, 3 million Asians, two percent of South Africa’s population of 47 million, Indians are in the majority.When they arrived from colonial India, they were termed Indian South Africans. At the Global People of Indian Origin gathering, they were called South Africans of Indian origin. They have evolved via political resistance to Indian-African or African-Indian.Notwithstanding the sentimental journey, emotional bloodlines and poignant history, culminating in the triumphal spirit of humanity, the identity crisis is a post-apartheid challenge. This is further complicated by a strong identification with Bollywood, heart-throbbing ethnic music, spicy cuisines, sweetmeats and saris, demonstrating that the umbilical cord with Mother India is still intact. That’s why a contingent of Indians is lobbying at the Chennai Convention, hoping to sharpen their profiles, forge business opportunities and explore their ancestry. Significantly, Chennai is the port where mainly Tamil and Telugu-speaking labourers from the Madras presidency sailed for the “bay by the water”, and began to push into Africa. Today, a legacy lives in the hearts and minds of a people whose forebears toiled from dawn to dusk under the African sun.

Imagine Durban Promotes Tomorrow's Clowns without Borders

2009-01-09T21:55:00.000-08:00

Eureka! Imagine Durban Puts Smiles on Tomorrow’s Homegrown Clowns

Written by Marlan Padayachee
Monday, 22 December 2008
In its quest to make a difference to the city’s environmental and human landscapes, Imagine Durban has transformed the lives of several young people from previously disadvantaged and indigent communities through the drama therapy of simply clowning around for a worthy cause.
Step aside circus institution, Boswell Wilkies. Let the drums roll for a curtain call to Vuka Circus, Durban’s first, homegrown circus road show.
With jobs becoming scarce for young graduates and school-leavers amid a global recession and economic meltdown, Imagine Durban, in an exciting partnership with the internationally-renowned Clowns Without Borders, has successfully harnessed the untapped skills of eight youths from the Durban’s inner-city townships and other areas. After a month-long programme, including workshops in the art of clowning around, twisting a balloon, juggling in pairs and scaling new heights on the shoulders of clowning colleagues, Eureka!
Vuka Circus is the latest red-nosed brigade that’s on the roll to put smiles on the faces of men, women and children throughout Durban, from the historic heritage site of Bhambayi’s Gandhi Settlement to the Valley of 1000 Hills.
The Clowns Without Borders’ mentoring and skills development workshops with Vuka Circus is one of the central themes of Imagine Durban, a project led by the eThekwini Municipality, to celebrate Durban’s cultural diversity, arts and heritage.
Imagine Durban is a Municipality sponsored project being implemented in conjunction with Sustainable Cities, a Canadian NGO and the PLUS Network, a network of 35 cities in 14 countries that has been established to share experiences in sustainability planning, that is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency.
A core element of the Imagine Durban project was to allocate funding for community Demonstration Projects that would directly benefit the citizens of Durban in a sustainable way. There are currently eight Imagine Durban Demonstration Projects that will be implemented throughout the Municipality addressing issues ranging from public safety and food security to art and livelihoods.
With the launch of the first Demonstration Project, Vuka Circus has arrived. Through choreography of colourful antics, juggling, animation, acrobats and even scaling shoulders, Vuka Circus narrates the painful and poignant stories of the deadly scourge of HIV-Aids and the post-apartheid nightmare of xenophobhia that has blighted the new South Africa’s human rights image.
Vuka Circus performed the awareness raising show eleven times in early December. Nine of the performances were followed by workshops in which children were taught some clowning basics after which they were divided into groups and the performers facilitated a discussion about xenophobia.
Through the skilful antics of Busi Biyela or Bongekile Mabuya or Sipho Mdletshe, or Michael Ncayiyana’s red-nosed clowning, the juggling prowess of Sabee Shozi and Mduza Nzuza, Thandile Phoswa’s prancing in hoops of joy and jubilation, the rookie change agents animates the intolerance of humanity towards each other, the desperate scramble for bread crumbs in the shrinking food chain cycle and a dash for menial jobs in the marketplace.
“Clowns are far more than showing how to twist balloons or creating balloon sculpture and Clowns Without Borders, with the excellent support of Imagine Durban, has empowered Vuka Circus with new skills as clowns, acrobats and jugglers,” said Jamie Lachman, Founder and Director Clowns Without Borders South Africa, soon after his protégés delivered their final laugh-a-minute performance at the BAT Centre on the city’s waterfront recently.
“Through juggling, acrobats, games and some clowning, children learn in a fun way how to talk about the recent xenophobic attacks on foreigners and how to deal with the burning question of HIV-AIDS that continues to affect parents and guardians and leaves children orphaned.”
Project administrator Lulu Ngcobo says she has witnessed some “amazing transformation” in the scores of youths who have benefited from the road shows: “Imagine Durban has given us an excellent opportunity to source the best talents from communities that are sidelined from the social and economic mainstream. These free skills development opportunities has empowered youths with professional development and life skills and many of them are now much more versatile.
Eleven performances later, the colourful clown troupe that makes up the Vuka Circus has brought smiles and laughter to the children and adults in schools and communities across Durban, highlighting the pangs of a post-apartheid society caught in a grip of grinding poverty and unemployment. They left their audiences in stitches.

A Little Picasso with a Passion for Art - Deyakhar Padayachee

2009-01-04T23:01:00.001-08:00

ART @ Westville Senior Primary School, South Africa

We recently submitted a number of children’s art to the Royal Show Art Competition. The following children won prizes for their art :Grade 4. Dominique de Grandpré – 1st, Courtney Slaney – 3rdGrade 5 Deyakhar Padayachee - 1stGrade 6 Michelle Reynolds - 2nd, Michael Ramsey – 3rd, Matthew Wessels - 3rdSpecial Competition – Let’s CelebrateJoshua Nelson (Grade 7) - 1stDylan Howard (Grade 7) - 2ndTamryn Woolacott (Grade 7) - 3rdWell done on winning first, second and third in this division.Highly CommendedGrade 7 - Lulu Ndimeni, Stanley Liu and Emilye Slabbert.Out of the five sections entered, we won 10 of the 15 prizes and the Reynolds Trophy for the Junior School winning the most points in the Art division. Well done to all these learners and to Mrs Evans for helping them to produce Art of such a high standard.

Bid to Bring Bollywood to Durban - Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo

2009-01-03T06:49:00.001-08:00

Researched and Written by Marlan Padayachee, Speechwriter to Logie Naidoo, Deputy Mayor of the City of Durban, eThekwini Municipality, South Africa.
A PAPER PRESENTED BY COUNCILLOR LOGIE NAIDOO, DEPUTY MAYOR OF THE ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY, CITY OF DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA, AT THE ANNUAL PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIVAS IN CHENNAI, INDIA, FROM 7-9 JANUARY 2009.
TOPIC: CULTURAL ENTERTAINMENT AND MOVIE INDUSTRY OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN INDIA AND DURBAN.
THANK YOU, PROGRAMME DIRECTOR.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.
DISTINGUISHED DELEGATES AND DIGNITARIES.
AS THE DEPUTY MAYOR OF THE ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY AND THE CITY OF DURBAN IN SOUTH AFRICA, I HAVE IMMENSE PRIDE AND PLEASURE IN RECOGNISING THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS GLOBAL GATHERING OF PEOPLE OF INDIAN ORIGIN THAT HAS COME TO GAIN PROMINENCE IN THE INDIAN DIASPORA STAGE AS THE PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIVAS.
THE HONOURABLE CHIEF MINISTERS, MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.
THE MINISTRY OF OVERSEAS INDIAN AFFAIRS.
THE STATE GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU.
THE CONFEDERATION OF INDIAN INDUSTRY.
CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY.
CORPORATE AND BUSINESS LEADERS.
THE PEOPLE OF CHENNAI AND TAMIL NADU.
THE PEOPLE OF INDIA.
ALL STAKEHOLDERS AND ROLE-PLAYERS.
FELLOW PRESENTERS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I WISH TO RECOGNISE SOME OF MY COLLEAGUES AND COMPATRIOTS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN DELEGATION.

I AM ALSO PROUD THAT THEY ALL HAIL FROM THE CITY OF DURBAN.
ON THIS FORUM, I HAVE PLEASURE IN ACKNOWLEDGING THE PRESENCE AND PARTICIPATION OF:
· PROFESSOR DASARATH CHETTY, PRO-VICE CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL;
· JUSTICE MOHINI MURUGASEN, ONE OF MANY WOMEN JURISTS APPOINTED TO THE BAR IN OUR TRANSFORMING LEGAL SYSTEM;
· MR THOLSIAH P NAIDOO, DIRECTOR OF THE INDIAN ACADEMY;
· MR AMICHAND RAJBANSI, LEADER OF THE MINORITY FRONT AND MEC FOR SPORT AND RECREATION IN THE KWAZULU-NATAL GOVERNMENT, AND MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, WHO WAS APPOINTED TO THE PROVINCIAL CABINET BY THE RULING AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS.
GOOD MORNING/GOOD AFTERNOON.
HAVING PREVIOUSLY ATTENDED THE PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIVAS IN NEW DELHI, I MUST SALUTE THE JOINT ORGANISERS FOR THEIR FLEXIBILITY IN BRINGING THIS ANNUAL SOCIAL AND BUSINESS NETWORKING PLATFORM TO THE SOUTH EASTERN SHORES OF THIS ANCIENT CIVILISATION THAT IS INEXTRICABLY TIED TO OUR HISTORY, HERITAGE, LEGACY AND DESTINY IN SOUTH AFRICA.
NO ONE WOULD BE MORE THRILLED OR OVERWHELMED THAN ME IF THE PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIVAS IS EXPORTED BEYOND THESE SACRED SHORES TO DURBAN, ON THE SOUTH EASTERN TIP OF AFRICA.
AS A SISTER-CITY OF CHENNAI, ANY INITIATIVE TO FLY THE FLAG OF THE PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIVAS IN DURBAN WOULD BE BEST DESCRIBED AS GROUND-BREAKING AND SYMBOLIC.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, SOUTH AFRICA’S DEFINING YEAR OF 2010 WILL SEE OUR MATURING AND FLEDGLING DEMOCRACY HOST ONE OF THE GREATEST SPORTING SPECTACLES IN THE WORLD, THE FIFA WORLD CUP SOCCER.
IN THE YEAR OF OUR WORLD RECOGNITION, SOUTH AFRICA’S INDIAN COMMUNITY WILL ALSO BE CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF ITS CO-EXISTENCE IN AFRICA.
THIS WILL BE A NOSTALGIC MILESTONE, IN WHICH INDIA’S FATHER OF THE NATION, MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI, HAD A HAND IN SHAPING OUR DESTINY FROM THE SHACKLES OF COLONIAL-APARTHEID RULE.
FOR THIS PRICELESS AND SELFLESS CONTRIBUTION MADE BY GANDHIJI, INDIAN SOUTH AFRICANS, OF WHICH THE MAJORITY LIVE, WORK AND THRIVE IN THE CITY OF DURBAN, ARE INDEBTED AND GRATEFUL TO MOTHER INDIA.
LET ME PAUSE AT THIS STAGE TO SHARE WITH YOU A HISTORICAL TIMELINE OF OUR SHARED EXPERIENCE.
THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS, THE MAJORITY PARTY IN DURBAN, AND MOST PART OF OUR REPUBLIC, HAS ENJOYED, AND CONTINUES TO ENJOY, A LONG-STANDING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CONGRESS PARTY OF INDIA EVER SINCE INDIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS, SHRI SAROJINI NAIDOO DECLARED APARTHEID A CRIME TO HUMANITY IN THE 1940s.
EVER SINCE SHRI LATHA REDDY OPENED THE FIRST INDIAN CONSULATE IN DURBAN IN 1993, INDIA IS REMAINS A KEY STRATEGIC PARTNER FOR SOUTH AFRICA.
THE OPENING OF THE CONSULATE IN THE HEART OF OUR CBD HAS BEEN THE STIMULUS FOR UNPRECEDENTED TWO-WAY FLOW OF PEOPLE, TRADE RELATIONS AND CULTURAL EXCHANGES BETWEEN DURBAN AND MAJOR INDIAN CITIES OVER THE PAST 15 YEARS.
THEREFORE, OUR PRESENCE AND PARTICIPATION DURING THIS CONVENTION AND EXHIBITION IS TO ENSURE THAT THESE UNIQUE TIES ARE STRENGTHENED AND RAISED TO THE NEXT BAR OF MUTUAL CO-OPERATION BETWEEN A PEOPLE TIED BY A COMMON DESTINY.
AS INDIA AND CHINA JOSTLES TO EMERGE AS WORLD ECONOMIC LEADERS BY 2015, LET US JOIN US HANDS, HARNESS OUR SKILLS, TALENTS, RESOURCES AND CAPITAL AND MAKE THE SOUTH AFRICA-INDIA-BRAZIL AGREEMENT WORK BEYOND OUR WILDEST DREAMS.
I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT DURBAN IS READY TO DO BUSINESS.
I SEE THE MEDIA, FILM AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY AS THE NEW CATALYSTS FOR AN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RENAISSANCE BETWEEN US.

I HAVE A VISION THAT 2009 IS THE CURTAIN-RAISER AND 2010 IS THE AFRICAN STAGE, THE GATEWAY TO A MULTITUDE OF OPPORTUNITIES.
SO, YOU CANNOT IMAGINE HOW EXCITED WE ARE TO MAKE THE BEST OF THE NEXT 12 MONTHS IN THE LEAD UP TO 2010 WHEN WE INVITE ONE OF OUR STRONGEST ALLIES, INDIA AND ITS PEOPLE, TO JOIN US IN CELEBRATING THE AFRICAN WORLD CUP AND THE 150 YEAR CELEBRATION OF INDIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA.
OUR INDIAN PARTNERS AND VISITORS WILL SOON REALISE THAT INDIANS ARE UBIQUITOUS IN DURBAN AND YOUR HOSPITALITY WILL BE AKIN TO HOME FROM HOME.
DURBAN IS HOME TO MORE THAN FOUR MILLION PEOPLE, OF WHICH MORE THAN 800 000 INDIANS RESIDE IN OUR COSMOPOLITAN CITY.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I TRUST THAT I HAVE WHETTED YOUR APPETITE THUS FAR.
TODAY, THROUGH THE PAGES OF MY PAPER AND A SLIDE PRESENTATION, I HOPE TO TRANSPORT YOU FROM INCREDIBLE INDIA ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN RIM TO A CITY THAT I WILL REFER TO AS AN AFRICAN PARADISE AND ITS PEOPLE.
MY TASK IS TO FOCUS ON THE CULTURAL ENTERTAINMENT AND MOVIE INDUSTRY OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN INDIA AND THE CITY OF DURBAN.
WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE CONVENTION THEME : ENGAGING THE DIASPORA – THE WAY FORWARD, I INTEND PROVIDING SOME INSIGHTS INTO HOW THE COLLECTIVE SUB-THEMES OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE, DIASPORA YOUTH IN 21ST CENTURY INDIA, BUILDING BRIDGES, TRADE AND INVESTMENT, DIASPORA PHILANTHROPHY, EDUCATION AND DIASPORA KNOWLEDGE NETWORK AND MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, AS CHAIRMAN OF THE CITY’S ECONOMIC AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE, I STAND BEFORE CONFIDENT THAT FILM INDUSTRY’S KEY CATCH-PHRASES: LIGHTS, CAMERAS, ACTION! – HAS BECOME NEW SOCIAL ECONOMIC BUZZWORDS IN DURBAN.
DURBAN IS THE NEW STUDIO OF OUR BURGEONING FILM INDUSTRY.
OVER THE PAST 149 YEARS, WE IN DURBAN AND SOUTH AFRICA HAVE BEEN INSPIRED AND ENTERTAINED BY INDIA’S FILM INDUSTRY, KNOWN WORLDWIDE AS BOLLYWOOD.
EVEN IN THE DARKEST HOUR OF APARTHEID, BLACK AND WHITE FILMS RANGING FROM THE ALL-TIME CLASSIC, MOTHER INDIA, TO A VARIETY OF HINDI AND TAMIL MOVIES FEATURING SOME OF THE BEST-LOVED ACTORS, HAVE AN ENRICHED GENERATIONS OF INDIANS OUTSIDE THE SUB-CONTINENT.
TODAY, BOLLYWOOD IS AN INSTITUTION AMONG SOUTH AFRICANS OF INDIAN ORIGIN.
TOGETHER WITH ALL OUR STAKEHOLDERS IN THIS PROMISING YOUNG INDUSTRY AND OUR PARTNERS IN INDIA, WE ARE DETERMINED FROM CALCUTTA TO CHENNAI TO BRING BOLLYWOOD TO DURBAN. I AM PLEASED TO INFORM YOU THAT THE BUSTLING PORT CITY OF DURBAN IS ENTHUSIASTIC TO PARALLEL THE ESTABLISHED FILM INDUSTRIES IN OUR SISTER CITIES, CAPE TOWN AND JOHANESBURG.

I AM HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE AT THIS FORUM THAT THE ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY HAS OPENED THE DURBAN FILM OFFICE, A FORERUNNER TO ENSURING THAT OUR FILM INDUSTRY GROWS INTO A LANDMARK LOCATION FOR INDIAN MOVIE-MAKERS.

AS A CONVENTION CITY WITH A MYRIAD OF NATURAL HERITAGE SITES, WILDLIFE AND BREATHTAKING LOCATIONS, FROM THE BERG TO THE BEACH, A REFERENCE TO OUR SPECTACULR SIGHTS OF THE DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAIN TO OUR SUN-SOAKED BEACHES, I CAN ASSURE BOLLLYWOOD OF THE CITY’S MAXIMUM CO-OPERATION AND SUPPORT.

OUR AFRICAN PARADISE AND ITS PEOPLE HAVE THE CAPACITY TO PROVIDE THE BEST CANVAS FOR FILM-MAKERS TO ROLL OUT THEIR ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE GENIUS.

IN THIS RESPECT, THE DURBAN FILM OFFICE HAS RECENTLY TIED UP STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS WITH THE KWAZULU-NATAL FILM COMMISSION AND THE DURBAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY FILM COMMITTEE TO BOOST THE LOCAL FILM ENVIRONMENT.

BY NOW MANY OF YOU WOULD KNOW THAT DURBAN BOASTS A LEADING MOVIE MOGUL.

I LOOK FORWARD TO THE DAYS WHEN ANANT SINGH AND INDIA’S PROLIFIC DIRECTOR OF THE ‘MIDDLE CINEMA’ SHYAM BENEGAL WILL JOIN FORCES TO COLLABORATE ON A FILM CHRONICLING THE MIGRATION OF INDIAN LABOURERS AND TRADERS TO DURBAN AND A STORYBOARD ENCOMPASSING 150 YEARS IN OUR VERY OWN STUDIO.

BORN AND BRED IN THE CITY WHERE THE FIRST BATCH OF INDIAN INDENTURED LABOURERS SET FOOT ON 16 NOVEMBER 1860, ANANT SINGH HAS BECOME DURBAN’S BEST INTERNATIONAL EXPORT.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I AM PLEASED TO INFORM YOU THAT OUR FILM AMBASSADOR IS FORGING AHEAD WITH HIS PLANS TO LAUNCH A R40-MILLION OR SIX-MILLION US DOLLAR DURBAN FILM CITY ON THE DOORSTEP OF THE CITY’S GOLDEN MILE STRETCH OF BLUE-FLAGGED BEACH.

THIS MASSIVE PROJECT IS BOUND TO REVOLUTIONISE DURBAN INTO A MAJOR-LEAGUE CINEMA ENVIRONMENT.

THE BENEFITS ARE ENORMOUS FOR ALL STAKEHOLDERS, INCLUDING INVESTORS, AS THIS MODEL ROLLS OUT FOR A CITY THAT IS NOT NEW TO MOVIE-MAKING.

I AM REMINDED THAT IN 1909, ABOUT THE TIME GANDHIJI WAS CHANGING THE LOCAL LANDSCAPE; DURBAN WAS THE FIRST IN THE COLONIAL COUNTRY WITH A PERMANENT BUILDING FOR SCREENING MOTION PICTURES.

OUR HISTORY REVEALS THAT A CINEMA CALLED THE ELECTRIC THEATRE FILMED AND SCREENED THE NEWSREELS OF THE ANGLO-BOER WAR FROM 1889 TO 1902, RECORDING FOR THE FIRST TIME A WAR HAD BEEN FILMED ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
THIS LED TO THE PRODUCTION OF TWO FILMS, ZULU AND ZULU DAWN, RANKED AS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FILMS MADE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

AS I SPEAK ANANT SINGH’S LATEST MOVIE, MR BONES 2 THAT WAS SHOT ON LOCATION IN DURBAN WITH THE SUPPORT OF OUR MUNICIPALITY IS A BOX-OFFICE HIT, TOPPING ALMOST R20 MILLION IN THE FIRST THREE WEEKS.

THE PREMIERE OF THIS DELIGHTFUL NEW EXPORT WAS HELD IN DURBAN, ANOTHER INDICATOR OF JUST HOW SERIOUS WE ARE TO TURN THE FILM INDUSTRY ON ITS HEAD.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, DURBAN’S CINEMATIC WHEEL IS READY TO SPIN INTO A SUCCESS STORY.

BUT BEFORE THAT THE CITY OWES ITS NEW BENCHMARKING IN THE FILM INDUSTRY TO THE DURBAN FILM FESTIVAL.

NOW KNOWN AS THE DURBAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IN ITS 31ST YEAR, THE ORIGINAL DURBAN FILM CIRCLE PROVIDED A HOME FOR ALTERNATIVE FILM MAKING.

WHEN APARTHEID LAWS BLACKED OUT SCREENING OF FILMS AND PROHIBITED MIXED-RACE AUDIENCE, THE FILM CIRCLE SCREENED ART HOUSE MOVIES TO MULTIRACIAL PATRONS AT CAMPUS HALLS ON SUNDAY NIGHTS.

RUNNING PARALLEL TO THE LIBERATION STRUGGLE IN THE 1980s, ACTIVISTS LOBBIED TO DEMOCRATISE THE FILM AND TELEVISION INDUSTRY TO UNDERMINE APARTHEID PROPAGANDA.
DURING THIS ERA THE APARTHEID GOVERNMENT SUBSIDISED FILM-MAKING FOR ITS PROPAGANDA PURPOSE.

HOWEVER, TODAY, OUR DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT HAS PUT IN PLACE A FILM AND PUBLICATIONS BOARD THAT MONITORS THE INDUSTRY, INCLUDING THE SPECTRUM OF THE ANIMATION INDUSTRY.

IN FACT, THE NEW GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS FILM-MAKING INITIATIVES AND INCENTIVES ARE OFFERED TO ENSURE THAT FILM-MAKERS CAN EVEN SHOOT LOW-BUDGET FILMS AGAINST OUR FASCINATING BACKDROPS, SIGHTS AND SOUNDS.

SINCE OUR MARCH TO FREEDOM IN 1994, WE HAVE MANY STORIES TO TELL AND DOCUMENT THEM VIA OUR FILM STUDIO IN THE MAKING.

DURBAN IS CENTRAL TO THE COLLECTIVE CONTRIBUTION OF FILM-MAKING, PROVIDING AFFORDABLE LABOUR AND INFRASTRUCTURE, AND DIVERSE CANVAS OF LOCATIONS SUITED FOR 320 DAYS OF SUNSHINE AND GOOD WEATHER.

I AM CONVINCED THAT DURBAN IS BECOMING A POPULAR LOCATION FOR INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORS AND PRODUCERS.

WITH DURBAN BOASTING THE BIGGEST AND LONGEST RUNNING INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IN SOUTH AFRICA, I BELIEVE WE HAVE THE EXPERTISE, KNOW-HOW, PEOPLE AND LOCATIONS TO
ENSURE THAT THE REELS ARE READY TO ROLL.

I THEREFORE WISH TO ASSURE YOU THAT THE DURBAN FILM OFFICE HAS THE CAPACITY AND EXPERTISE TO FACILITATE MOVIE PRODUCTIONS RANGING FROM FULL-LENGTH FILMS TO DOCUMENTARIES AND ADVERTISING PRODUCTIONS FROM LOCAL TO WORLD BRANDS.

THROUGH THE FILMING OF TWO BOLLYWOOD PRODUCTIONS, DOOM 2 AND RACE, FEATURING AMONG THE BOLLYWOOD SCREEN LEGENDS, ASIHWARAYA RAI AND HRITHIK ROSHAN, DURBAN HAD PROVIDED ROAD CLOSURES AND FACILITIES FOR SOME SPECTACULAR STUNTS.

AS PART OF THE CITY’S 2020 VISION TO CREATE A BETTER LIFE FOR ALL OUR CITIZENS, DURBAN ENCOURAGES THE RECRUITMENT OF LOCAL EXTRAS AND STAFF, WHILE PROVIDING CATERING AND THE COST OF PRODUCTION FOR FOREIGN CAST AND CREWS.

WITHIN THE ENTERTAINMENT REALM, DURBAN OFFERS A WORLD-CLASS VENUE FOR LIVE INTERNATIONAL SHOWS AT THE MUNICIPAL-OWNED INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE THAT HAS HOUSED HUNDREDS OF WORLD CONVENTIONS SINCE THE 1990S.

EVER SINCE INDIA’S ICONIC FILM LEGEND AMITABH BACHCHAN STAGED THE BIGGEST OPEN-AIR MUSIC CONCERT IN DURBAN, THE CITY HAS NEVER LOOKED BACKED AND HAS HOSTED SUPERSTARS RANGING FROM MICHAEL JACKSON TO UB40.

OUR NEW WORLD CUP STADIUM IS BEING DESIGNED TO HOST THE BIGGEST SHOWS FROM ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.

I WOULD ENCOURAGE PROMOTERS TO BRING INDIAN ENTERTAINMENT TO DURBAN.

CLASSICAL MUSIC IS HUGELY POPULAR AND I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE BEST OF THE BHARAT-NATYAM AND KATHAK DANCERS PERFORMING FOR OUR CITIZENS.

THE CITY WOULD ENCOURAGE CULTURAL EXCHANGES IN INDIAN MUSIC AND DANCE INVOLVING OUR INDIAN AND AFRICAN STUDENTS.

MORE THAN EVER, WE NEED TO KEEP THE CULTURAL FLAME BURNING AND THIS COULD BE ENHANCED BY FORGING LINKS THROUGH DURBAN’S SISTER-CITY STATUS WITH CHENNAI AND OTHER INDIAN CITIES.

HAVING SKETCHED SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS AS TO WHY INDIA SHOULD BRING BOLLYWOOD OR ITS ENTERTAINMENT ACTS TO DURBAN LET ME SUPPORT MY BID TO OFFER DURBAN AS THE NEW FILM-MAKING AND ENTERTAINMENT MECCA TO THE WORLD.

· AS A SOCIALITE IN A CITY WHERE THE SUN NEVER SETS, I CAN TESTIFY THAT DURBAN HAS A MUSICAL SOIL FOR EVERYONE FROM MUSICOLOGISTS TO THE RHYTHMIC RAPPER TO LEAVE THEIR FOOTPRINTS.

· FIRSTLY, THE CITY CONTIUNUES TO POUR MILLIONS OF DOLLARS INTO BRAND MARKETING DURBAN AS AN INTERNATIONAL TOURIST DESTINATION AND LANDMARK LOCATION SITUATED AS A GATEWAY INTO AFRICA.

· DURBAN IS ONE OF THE GREAT CITIES IN AFRICA, THE THIRD LARGEST IN SOUTH AFRICA, AND AN ECONOMIC HUB AND LINKAGE INTO SOUTHERN AFRICA.

· AS WE PREPARE FOR 2010, THE CITY IS ROLLING OUT MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURAL PROJECTS, INCLUDING OUR R1, 6 BILLION GIANT STADIUM WITH A SEATING CAPACITY OF 70 000.

· OUR INDIAN INVESTORS AND VISITORS CAN EXPECT TO TOUCH DOWN AT A MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT OVERLOOKING THE INDIAN OCEAN.

· TAKE MY WORD FOR IT THAT DURBAN OFFERS VISITORS, INVESTORS AND CITIZENS AN EXCITING GLIMPSE INTO A POSITIVE FUTURE.

· DURBAN’S COSMOPOLITAN PROFILING AND OUR SPECTRUM OF CULTURES, SIGHTS AND SOUNDS, AND AS WELL AS AUTHENTIC INDIAN, AFRICAN AND WESTERN CUISINES, AND HOMEGROWN HOSPITALITY, CONTRIBUTES TO SOUTH AFRICA’S NATIONAL CULTURE.

· OUR TAGLINE, ONE CITY, MANY CULTURES, MAKES DURBAN A UNIQUE METROPOLIS WHERE EAST MEETS WEST AND BLENDS WITH INDIGENOUS AFRICAN CULTURE, RITUALS, SOCIAL COHESION, POLITICAL MATURITY AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT.
· IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION, THE CITY’S STREETS INTERSECTS WITH TEMPLES, MOSQUES, SYNAGOGUES, CHURCHES AND CATHEDRALS.
· THE CITY THRIVES ON PROMOTING INTER-FAITH ACTIVITIES, HARMONY, PEACE AND TOLERANCE.
· AS A MULTICULTURAL REALITY, RELIGION IN DURBAN IS A DYNAMIC MELTING POT OF BELIEFS, THEOLOGIES AND RITUALS.
· AS A YOUNG DEMOCRACY, DURBAN HAS A PROGRESSIVE CITY GOVERNMENT THAT CELEBRATES DIVERSITY THAT IS THE HEARTBEAT OF OUR CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC LIFE.
· THE CITY’S DOMINANT ECONOMIC FACTORS INCLUDE TOURISM, FOOD AND BEVERAGES, AUTOMOBILE AND AUTOMBILE COMPONENTS, NON-FERROUS METAL AND PULP AND PAPER.
· DURBAN IS ACREATIVE BASTION IN THE SUN FOR TO SOME OF THE WORLD RENOWNED ARTISTS, WRITERS AND PERFORMERS.
· THE ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY IS PROPELLED BY A 2020 VISION TO MAKE DURBAN AFRICA’S MOST CARING AND LIVABLE CITY WHERE ALL CITIZENS AND WILL LIVE IN HARMONY.
· IT IS BOLD ECONOMIC INITIATIVES, PARTICULARLY TOURISM, FILM-MAKING AND ENTERTAINMENT, THAT WILL ENABLE THE CITY TO ACHIEVE THIS MEDIUM-TERM GOAL OF PROVIDING A WORLD-CLASS CITY AND A HIGH QUALITY OF LIFE AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL OUR CITIZENS, VISITORS AND INVESTORS.
· WE ARE STRIVING TO BECOME A SAFER AND SUSTAINABLE CITY.
FINALLY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I THANK YOU FOR BEING AN ATTENTIVE AUDIENCE AND I INVITE YOU TO ENGAGE ME TO EXPLORE ANY OPPORTUNITIES YOU MAY WISH TO PURSUE WITH DURBAN AND ITS PEOPLE.
ALL THAT’S LEFT ME TO DO IS TO WELCOME YOU TO DURBAN, AN AFRICAN JEWEL AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD.
I THANK YOU.
____________________________________________________
Presentation Paper researched and written by Marlan Padayachee GreenGold Africa Communications on behalf of the Deputy Mayor of the City of Durban, eThekwini Municipality, South Africa, on the occasion of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Chennai, India, 7-9 January 2009: greengold@telkomsa.net+00 27 31 266 5599/ 083 796 1762

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas - Indians Ahead of 150 Years in South Africa

2009-01-03T06:41:00.000-08:00

Indians in South Africa: Let’s Bridge the Identity Crisis

Indian South Africans or South Africans of Indian origin? Indians first or South Africans second? MARLAN PADAYACHEE tosses the coin on this perennial identity crisis issue facing the one-million strong Indians in South Africa and glances at two sides of the coin as this colourful community prepares to celebrate 150 years in Africa in 2010.

BY THIS TIME next year, South Africa’s unique Indian community may set off a plethora of projects to celebrate 150 years of co-existence in Africa, a far cry from the country many still fondly refer to as the Motherland or Thai Nadu.

While older generations remain emotional and sentimental about traditional and historical ties with Mother India, the younger generation looks to established democracies for job opportunities and a modern lifestyle without the colonial-apartheid baggage.

On the flipside, just how will the hybrid of indentured labourers and traders fuse this celebration into a continental psyche, heralding the first kick off of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa that is bound to throw Africa into euphoric explosion of football frenzy?

When the British Raj ruled India, agriculturally skilled locals were shipped to the colonies of Trinidad & Tobago, Mauritius and South Africa to turn sugar cane plantations into new local economies for the imperial rulers.

Peasants, faced with poverty in the sub-continent, were lured to Africa as indentured labour via the colonial expansion and worked on the railways, mines, agriculture and domestic service.

Ever since the SS Truro dropped anchor in Durban Bay on 16 November 1860, shiploads of semi-skilled slaves, professional people and merchants were ferried to South Africa, with the economic migration subsiding at the beginning of the 20th century.

While the semi-slaves transformed the green fields into gold for their masters, the traders, craftsmen and fortune-seekers gave Indians the economic face on this side of the Indian Ocean Rim.

However, one visionary, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, changed the complexion of how Indians, both the underclass and the businessmen, would map out their survival strategy within the context of racism, oppression and social, economic and political impediments and the wholesale discrimination of indigenous African people.

In a 20-million strong Indian Diaspora, what makes this community stand out?

The “uniqueness” tag was earned through the stoical nature of the migrants and their work ethos, resilience in the face of adversity and the collective contribution to getting rid of their colonial-apartheid leg irons for a dream of a democratic state alongside their African compatriots.

Nowhere in the world had Indians sacrificed so much for so many people to enjoy freedom, social justice and human rights. That’s what makes this clan with a common culture cut above the rest in the global community.

On the other side of the coin, the grass is not greener for majority of the working class Indians.

While the community has become a formidable minority bloc, enjoying more social cohesion, inter-race integration, economic advantages and equal political status and voting rights, and they continue to play an influential role in business and politics, the majority of the descendants of the slaves have been left behind by the remarkable transition from apartheid to democracy.

The political transition has led to Indians marginalising themselves from the mainstream of the economically empowered black bloc, a sharp contrast to the days of Indian resistance against apartheid.

Precisely, this largely working class sector, estimated at almost 800 000 in KwaZulu-Natal, the birthplace of Indians, has to be brought up to speed to celebrate 150 years of Indians in 2010 South Africa.

Politically, the Indian vote, important as it may be in the national ballot, is split between India’s traditional allies, the African National Congress, and a coterie of opposition parties, including one by dissidents from the ruling elite. But then again, Indians, conservative by nature, tend to blow hot and cold or put place bets in the political roulettes.
Almost a century and a half later, it is arguable whether Indians have assimilated into the national heartbeat of the rainbow republic.

There is about 1, 3 million Asians in South Africa, almost two per cent of a population of 46 million, mostly of Indian origin.

People who arrived since the 1860s from colonial India are termed Indian South African. Even before the birth of the Global People of Indian Origin (Gopio), reference was made to South African of Indian origin.

Through its involvement in the political resistance emerged new terms like Indian African or African Indian.

Given the sentimental journey, emotional blood lines and poignant history of trial and tribulation culminating in the triumphal spirit of humanity, the identity crisis poses a post-apartheid challenge to the community. This may persist for a long time to come.

However, descriptions, terminology, classification and racial profiling apart, what’s important now is that the Diaspora cousins are finding each other through platforms like the trading partnership between Durban and Delhi, the India-Brazil-South Africa pact, the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, Gopio and other initiatives.

Maybe, an era of looming celebration calls for us to move beyond an identity crisis. After all, we now live in a global village with universal challenges of hopes and deferred dreams.

Significantly, Chennai is the home of this global gathering, where almost 150 years ago, the first batch of intrepid indentured labourers, mainly Tamil and Telugu-speaking Indians from the Madras Presidency, had pushed back the frontier into Africa.

Today, their legacy lives in the hearts and minds of a community that can count as enterprising and industrious ethnic group under the African sun, where non-racialism, social and economic co-existence and peace and solidarity shines on the horizon of hope.

It’s time to put our best foot forward ahead of 2010.

The writer, Marlan Padayachee, a British Council Fellow and recipient of the USIS International Visitor’s Award, is a seasoned journalist, former anti-apartheid activist, political commentator and media communications strategist, who covered President Nelson Mandela’s historic State visit to India in 1995, and he continues to keep a close interest on Indian issues. He is the Managing Editor of GreenGold Africa Communications in South Africa: greengold@telkomsa.net +00 27 31 266 5599.

Brand Sponsor to Wrap Up the 2009 Miss India Worlwide Pageant

2008-12-13T23:59:00.000-08:00

Brand sponsorship opportunity for the Miss India Worldwide Pageant Durban South Africa St Valentine's Day 2009

The 18th Miss India Worldwide Pageant, featuring 30 countries from the Indian Diaspora, seeks suitable brand marketing sponsor for six-day event in South Africa

Miss India Worldwide Pageant seeks suitable brand sponsors for the 18th Miss India Worldwide Pageant, on licence to South Africa from the India Festival Committee in New York, taking place on St Valentine's Day, 14 February 2009, Suncoast Casino, Durban's Golden Mile, South Africa. The hugely popular Miss India Worldwide Pageant, possibly heading for its 19th year in Mauritius in 2010, marking the 150th anniversary of Indians in South Africa and Mauritius, enjoys week-long community support of up to 1 000 patrons per event attending the Africa Night Celebrations in the midweek to the Grand Talent Contest on 13 February and culminating in a Gala Dinner Banquet and Pageant, beamed to a worldwide TV audience, on St Valentine's Day.The potential brand sponsors will enjoy unlimited advertising and marketing mileage, media coverage and big-screen product spots and Gold Circle VIP status and seating for a Table of 10; Full-Page Colour Advertisement in Official Brochure and access to a high LSM market and social and business networking with Durban's leading entrepreneurs and businesses, and a VIP Invitation to the After Party with the newly crowned Miss India Worldwide, First & Second Princesses and Leading Celebrities and VIP Guests at the Suncoast Casino.Potential sponsors will have access to the entire stage and giant advertising drop canvas x 2 at the major events, including the cross-cultural talent contest and fusion entertainment.

The 30 contestants, from diverse nations such as India, United States, Australia, Netherlands and Surinam, will arrive in Durban on 6 February for a start of weeklong activities and photo opportunities and brand exposure.

Company name : GreenGold Africa Communications
Contact name : Marlan Padayachee/Pinky Naidoo
Telephone number : + 27 31 266 1762/ 266 5599
Cellular contact: 083 796 1762/083 797 1762/ 083 980 3243/ 084 519 5931
Email address : greengold@telkomsa.net
Web address : www.greengoldcom.com

Durban Deputy Mayor Salutes 80 Years of Golf

2008-12-13T23:28:00.000-08:00

Speech by Councillor Logie Naidoo, Deputy Mayor of the eThekwini Municipality, at the Durban Golf Club’s 80th Anniversary Golf Day and Opening of the Driving Range, Papwa Sewgolum Golf Course, Sunday, 14 December 2008 at 14h00.

Thank You, Programme Director.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and dignitaries.

I could begin this speech by declaring that golf is my only handicap, but I am not going to put on my back foot this time.

In the past few years, the golf bug has hit me.

I am pleased to say that I organized the ANC’s Golf Day at the Mount Edgecombe Golf Course six months ago; I have learnt that if you play golf just for the exercise – there are better ways to exercise.

Thank you, to the Durban Golf Club and your president, Mr Siva Padayachee, for supporting the ANC’s fundraising golf day.

So we you hear us say a “Better Life for All” in the coming weeks, we mean just that – our citizens playing golf, having fun and networking with each other to change the economic and human landscape.

Ladies and Gentlemen and Dignitaries, I wish to recognize among you, the Honourable Judge Thumba Pillay, and one of the club’s pioneering activist-presidents along with other stalwarts like George Singh, Ramhori Lutchman, Benny Naidoo, Lambie Rasool, Louis Nelson, and so many legends since the 1940s.

Therefore it gives me great pleasure on behalf of the eThekwini Municipality to extend our goodwill and good wishes to the Durban Golf Club on this momentous occasion.

I am indeed privileged as Chairperson of the City’s Economic Development Committee to witness some of the amazing capital and infrastructural development and transformational changes at this once marginalized golf club that produced famous golfing heroes like Papwa Sewgolum, Vincent Tshabalala and hundreds of good golfers in the past 80 years.

This afternoon, the City of Durban salutes all of you for your stoicism in the face of adversity.

Like good golfers who know how to weather the storm and hit a perfect shot, you have turned adversity into advantage.

Today, you are the proud custodians, activists and architects of what a golf club should look like.

There’s no telling what the city can expect as you tee off for the start of the next 20 years of success stories leading up to the centenary celebrations in 2028.

Let me assure you that the city is proud of the club’s transformation policy and progress.

We are aware of the club’s free coaching programme for youths on Saturdays under the tutelage of another veteran, Links Poonsamy.

But, no golf speech is complete without a quip.

So let me share my perspective of golf with you.

Being a Day of Sabbath when most golfers also pray to the Gods of Golf, either for good weather or hitting a birdie or eagle, I am reminded about what American evangelist Billy Graham once said: “The only time my prayers are never answered is on the golf course.”

However, as some of the successful putters and hitters are soon to be honoured in the club house, may I add: “Golf should be learned starting from the cup and progressing back to the tee!”

I take this opportunity of congratulating the Durban Golf Club for achieving 80 years of playing and promoting non-racial golf as our “One City, Many Cultures” city knows it.

The opening of the driving range is another feather in the club’s cap.

On this score, I wish to salute your hard-working President Siva Padayachee, his deputy Robert Manjoo, and all the members, for making a difference to the golfing landscape.

Now I now where to come to improve my golf.

I have immense pleasure and pride in performing this privilege this afternoon.

The city looks forward to working with the improving conditions at this picturesque golf club and may progress be the buzz word as you navigate the next two decades.

I take this opportunity of wishing all of you a well-earned festive break, a merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.

I Thank You

Speech researched and written by Marlan Padayachee, GreenGold Africa Communications, on behalf of the Mayor’s Office/Deputy Mayor’s Office on 14.12.2008 greengold@telkomsa.net 083 796 1762/ 083 797 1762

Come Up with a Best Idea for a Safer City of Durban

2008-11-23T23:13:00.001-08:00

Marlan Padayachee, Media Consultant to Imagine Durban

CHRISTMAS could come early in the form of R500 each gift vouchers for 30 innovative and creative people who can come up with some brilliant ideas on one of the Imagine Durban themes before the November 30 deadline for all entries in the newly-launched “My Idea” competition.
Imagine Durban is a public-private sector partnership project led by the eThekwini Municipality and is being implemented in conjunction with Sustainable Cities, an NGO from Vancouver, Canada, and the PLUS Network of 35 cities in 14 countries that has been established to share experiences in sustainability planning. Imagine Durban is a process that has began mobilising government to non-government, civil society organisations, faith based groups, tertiary institutions, business organisations and ordinary citizens to imagine what we want our city to be like in the future and to create a path to begin taking us there today.
Imagine Durban has identified seven long-term sustainability themes to create public awareness and encourage public participation: Safe City, Caring & Commitment (Behaviour Change, Volunteerism, Human Value System, Family), Economic Development and Poverty Alleviation, Human Development, Accessibility, Future City / Eco City, and History, Heritage and Culture.

So how do you get involved and stand a chance to win gift vouchers.

Imagine Durban invite you to enter its "My Idea" Competition, aimed at capturing the innovative and creative thinking of individuals who have ideas on long term sustainability for the City of Durban. Entrants with winning ideas will one of 30 gift vouchers valued at R500 each.

How to enter? That's simple, either on line at http://www.imaginedurban.org/my-idea.html or by collecting an entry form from any Sizakala Customer Centres or Municipal Library and fill in the required information. The entry form is bilingual in English and isiZulu.

Your idea should focus on one of the Imagine Durban themes: creating a safer city, ensuring a more environmentally sustainable city, promoting an accessible city, creating a prosperous city, fostering a more caring and empowering city, and celebrating our cultural diversity, arts and heritage.

The next step would be to determine who best would be suited to implement these ideas? Should government, business or civil society implement your idea? Every question needs to be filled in and ensure that all your contact details are provided. Here’s a tip - your idea should be unique, but yet practical to implement.

Closing date for the competition is 30 November 2008. Entries can also be faxed to (031) 311 3446, or emailed to: imagine@durban.gov.za

For more information, email: imagine@durban.gov.za, or telephone Project Leader Thomas Ferreira on (031) 311 3424; or Project Assistant Zamah Ndlovu.
Kindly use Imagine Durban from this Press Release.

ISSUED BY:
GreenGold Africa Communications, PO Box 346 Pavilion 3611 South Africa
Tel: (031) 266 5599/ 266 1762/ Fax: (031) 266 9202/ Fax mail: 0866 98 93 43 greengold@telkomsa.net
Contact person: Media Liaison Officers: Pinky Naidoo or Lindiwe Nhleko

ON BEHALF OF:

Imagine Durban
eThekwini Municipality
City of Durban
Email: imagine@durban.gov.za
Tel: Project Leader Thomas Ferreira on (031) 311 3424;

OR Zamah NdlovueThekwini MunicipalityImagine DurbanProject AssistantEvent Organiser031 -311 3444

Political Heat Is On As Rockers Swoon South Africans

2008-11-18T18:57:00.000-08:00

Left of What’s Right
Marlan Padayachee jives to a tongue-and cheek sing-along as political dissidents step aside to give way to a babalaas blast of entertaining escapism
DATELINE DURBAN: WITH South Africa’s political drama swirling ahead of the 2009 election, South Africans are taking the arts, culture and entertainment escapism route.
Fourteen years later, there’s growing turbulence in the world’s youngest democracy in the aftermath of the Polokwane Triangle that has changed the political landscape, but take heart because some of the world’s top pop-rockers are heading are to Rainbow Country this sizzling summer.
With the winter of discontent etched the memories of political, crime, social and economic victims, add a spectre of xenophobic violence, compatriots will be letting their hair down as they drown in the soulful and lilting lyrics of Lionel Ritchie. Rod Stewart and marvel at how the Canadian Master of Unusual Comedy, Michel Lauziere, can play Mozart in uptown New York with his skateboard blades tickling the little green bottles.
Soon the sunset clause will be history as the revelers get into the party mood when the big hitters croon and drool on the concert stages.
Maybe, Richie will pop in at the Mandela (P) Residency to say Hello! Is It Me You’re Looking For? As the warring comrades belt out Say You, Say Me to leverage the head-splitting at Luthuli House, the fractured ruling regime may be also toyi-toyiing All Night Long as the breakaway band work out if they could be Truly called counter-revolutionaries.
While Richie croons about Endless Love, hoping Love Will Find a Way, there will be no love lost between the one-time comrades-in-arms as they jive to Stewart’s soulful solos, and declaring that I Know I’m Losing You. With all the parties getting into the voting rhythm from door to door, some may end up Dancing on the Ceiling while looking down on Every Picture Tells a Story with Richie choreographing a famous struggle drowned in sours.
But this is Afrique Du Suid, and the Irish grave-digger will soon grasp there’s Never a Dull Moment as he rubs the political salt into The First Cut is the Deepest before declaring a Three Time Loser by the time Thabo Mbeki is Sailin’ over the Victoria Falls down the Zambezi to have cold turkey with Old Man River. With Richie and Stewart strutting the stages, our own AK-47 dancing president-elect Jacob Zuma declaring It’s All Over Now with Our Endless Love for president-in-waiting Terror Lekota as he takes his gloves off for the Street Fighting Man. Then at the height of the dissensions in the wake of the China Olympics, Katie Malua strummed home the point to Capetonians that There Are Nine Million Bicycles in Beijing to ride to the polling booths without catching the gravy train en route to the Easter election. Broadway musical theatre star Christine Pedi put her foot into politics and gave us a tonic of cabaret, comedy and jazz during a triumphant tour with the ballots re-electing her as the Diva Dame. Then the one-liners took the Mickey Mouse out of us with slapsticks, turning Poetry Africa into a festival of poetic justice. Carlos Gomez put the shutters on the White House as Jitsvinger and Godessa (Three Times A Lady) rapped about rainbowism, leaving Bantu Mwaura probing why Kenyans had lost the political plot. iBushwomen left their footprints about the shifting sands and fortunes of the vanishing Khoi-San tribes while the ink dried on Thomas Mapfumo’s visa before he reached at Beit Bridge. Poet by any name is still a poet as they waxed lyrical about the literary legacy of Mahmoud Darwish, Palestine’s reluctant statesman who died on Poetry Road with his inspiring revolutionary verses. Until I dish out the 2008 Lemons and Naartjies Awards, laugh it off.

Marlan Padayachee, recipient of the British Council Fellow and US International Visitor’s Award, is an independent freelance journalist and socio-political commentator who runs a media-communications strategy consultancy in South Africa: greengold@telkomsa.net

Published in Juluka magazine USA in November 2008

Waxing Lyrical About Turning Fifty in Style

2008-11-09T00:12:00.000-08:00

SPEECH BY BHEMAN RANDERIA ON THE OCCASION OF THE 50TH BIRTHDAY OF HIS WIFE PRATHIEBA AT THE JAIPUR RESTAURANT ON FRIDAY 7 NOVEMBER 2008. GOOD EVENING, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, FAMILY MEMBERS, FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES. AT THE OUTSET, LET ME THANK ONE AND ALL OF YOU FOR TAKING TIME OFF AND DRESSING ELEGANTLY AND SMARTLY FOR THIS SPECIAL SIZZLING SUMMER PARTY ON THE OCCASION OF THE 50TH BIRTHDAY PARTY OF MY DEAR WIFE AND FIRST LADY, PRATHIEBA. THIS EVENING, I AM HOPING TO TELL A STORY OF A REMARKABLE WOMAN WHO HAS TURNED HER LIFE AROUND AND HAS BECOME MY CONSUMMATE COMPANION. PRATHIEBA IS ALSO A GOOD, NURTURING MOTHER TO MY SON, RUSHIL, AND HER CHILDREN, SHASHIKA, MISHA AND KABIR. BUT IN THE JOURNEY OF LIFE, WE OWE A DEBT OF GRATITUDE TO OUR MOTHERS FOR GIVING US THE GIFT OF LIFE. ON THAT NOTE, I THINK IT IS THEREFORE FITTING THAT I PAY TRIBUTE TO MY MOTHER, SUZANNE RANDERIA AND PRATHIEBA'S MUM, MANJUBHA MODI, FOR GIVING US THE JOY AND WISDOM OF LIFE. INDIAN PHILOSOPHER GANESHAN VENKATARAM ONCE SAID: "GOD SEES US THROUGH OUR MOTHER'S EYES AND REWARDS US FOR OUR VIRTUES." THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL RECEPTION WE HAVE RECEIVED FROM ALL OF YOU IN THE CIGAR LOUNGE. WHILE THERE I WAS REMINDED ABOUT WHAT LYNDA BARRY ONCE SAID: "LOVE IS AN EXPLODING CIGAR WE WILLINGLY SMOKE". THIS EVENING, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE ALL GATHERED TO SALUTE AND HONOUR PRATHIEBA RANDERIA FOR ACHIEVING HER MARVELOUS MILESTONE. OTHERS WILL SING HER PRAISES AND A LOT OF POSITIVE ENERGY IS ALREADY RADIATING AND RESONATING AROUND THIS EXTRAORDINARY LADY OF THE MOMENT. MY OWN TAKE ON MY WIFE IS BASED ON THE MOMENT WHEN I FIRST SET EYES ON HER AND HOW WE HAD CHRONICLED OUR JOURNEY DURING THE PAST TEN YEARS. DURING THIS JOURNEY, I HAVE LEARNT THAT ONE WORD FREES US ALL THE WEIGHT AND PAIN OF LIFE: THE WORD IS LOVE. OUR LOVE BOAT MAY HAVE TOSSED AND TURNED ON THE CHOPPY SEAS OF LIFE AND SAILED SMOOTHLY ON CALM WATERS, BUT WE ALWAYS DROPPED ANCHOR. AND HERE, I WANT TO THANK MEMBERS OF THE MODI FAMILY FOR THEIR WARMTH, HUMILITY AND HOSPITALITY IN ACCEPTING ME INTO A FAMILY THAT IS RICHLY TIED TO THE HISTORY OF THE CITY'S BUSINESS, RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL LANDSCAPE. THIS GRATITUDE IS PRICELESS WHEN I WEIGH UP THE VALUE PRATHIEBA HAS ADDED TO MY LIFE IN ALL THE YEARS THAT WE HAD STRUCK UP A PARTNERSHIP OF MUTUAL LOVE AND RESPECT. TO MY OWN FAMILY IN THE RANDERIA CLAN, THANKS FOR STANDING BY ME IN THE HOUR OF JOURNEY INTO THE MY CROSSROADS OF LIFE. THEN AGAIN, THIS EVENING'S CELEBRATION IS NOT ABOUT ME. IT'S ABOUT SOMEONE SPECIAL, WHO IS A WIFE, FRIEND, CONFIDANTE, PARTNER, PERSONAL TRAINER – THAT'S IN THE GYM OF COURSE – BANKER, ADVISER, MENTOR, LOVER, AND A SOFT SHOULDER TO CRY ON. SHE IS ALSO A PILLOW TO LIE ON AND A GOOD LISTENER DURING PILLOW TALKS. EVEN HER TOES ARE USEFUL. AND FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART, I WISH TO THANK PRATHIEBA FOR BEING A SUPER-MUM TO MY SON, RUSHIL. SO, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WHETHER WE ARE HIKING, TRAINING, DANCING, TALKING, WE ARE LIKE TWO PEAS IN A POD, WORKING TOGETHER AND STAYING TOGETHER. BUT THERE IS ALSO THE DOWNSIDE OF COLD TALK OR BEING SERVED COLD TURKEY, IF I STRAY OR LOSE FOCUS FOR A MOMENT FROM OUR MARITAL BLISS. BY NATURE, I AM A STICKLER FOR EVERYTHING TRIM, PRIM AND PROPER, HENCE THE NOTORIOUS NICKNAME, HITLER. AND PRATHIEBA HAS ADJUSTED TO MY OWN SET OF DEMANDS AND SHE MEETS ME HALF WAY IN ANYTHING WE DO OR DECIDE ON. MAYBE, I HAVE BECOME THIS NEAR-PERFECTIONIST SINCE THE DAY YOU SHOWERED YOUR BRIGHTNESS INTO OUR LIFE. ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN, PRATHIEBA ESPOUSES STRONG VALUES AND ETHICS, A CULTURE SHE LEARNT AS A BANKER AND FINANCIAL ADVISER. SHE IS A STRICT VEGETARIAN WHO WILL BROOK NO NONSENSE WHEN IT COMES TO THIS DIET OF DISCIPLINE – SOMETHING I ADMIRE HER FOR. SHE HAS BEEN REMARKABLE IN THE SENSE THAT SHE HAS PROMOTED A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE FOR HERSELF AND ALL OF US – HENCE THE SHAPELY, SEXY AND SIZZLING PROFILING THAT YOU SEE BEFORE YOU. I AM ALSO TEMPTED TO USE THE OLD ADAGE: BEHIND EVERY SUCCESSFUL MAN IS A WOMAN … BUT TONIGHT THE HONOUR IS ON SOMEONE WHO IS THE EPITOME OF ACHIEVEMENT. GROWING IN THE HUSTLE AND BUSTLE OF THE GREY STREET CBD AND INDIAN BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL CAPITAL, PRATHIEBA STARTED LIFE AS A TEACHER AND IT IS HER EXPERIENCE, LOVE AND CARE FOR CHILDREN THAT HAVE TRANSFORMED HER INTO A MUM IN A MILLION. HAVING GAINED SOME INVALUABLE INSIGHTS INTO BUSINESS FROM HER FAMILY, SHE WENT INTO BANKING AND SPENT ALMOST TWO DECADES OF MOTIVATING AND ENCOURAGING CLIENTS SUCH AS MYSELF THAT IF I WAS ABLE TO TAKE CARE OF THE RANDS, THE CENTS WILL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF. IN RECENT YEARS, PRATHIEBA HAS WORKED IN VEHICLE FINANCING. NOW IT IS RUMOURED THAT SHE MAY SOON BE APPOINTED A HOME EXECUTIVE – SO WATCH THIS SPACE. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I AM NOT GOING TO ALLOW A GOOD SPEECH TO COME IN THE WAY OF OUR NIGHT OF CELEBRATION AND FESTIVITIES. TO PRATHIEBA, I WISH TO SAY A BIG THANK YOU FOR COMING INTO OUR LIVES AND BRINGING ALL THE WARM-HEARTED FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS WHO HAVE GIVEN US INCREDIBLE SUPPORT DURING THIS HEART-STOPPING JOURNEY. YOU ARE, IN MY EYES, THE ESSENCE OF A LOVING, SENSITIVE, COMPASSIONATE AND CARING HUMAN BEING, WHO HAS LEARNT THAT IT IS BETTER TO GIVE THAN TO GET; AND IT IS WISER TO LIGHT A CANDLE THAN TO CURSE THE DARKNESS. THE LIGHT YOU HAVE BROUGHT INTO OUR LIVES WILL CONTINUE TO ILLUMINATE US AS WE NAVIGATE THE COMING YEARS. FINALLY, I BELIEVE THAT BEAUTY, PASSION AND LOVE ARE DIFFICULT TO DEFINE OR EXPERIENCE, OTHERWISE THERE WOULD BE MORE ROMANTICS. SOME SAY THERE IS ALWAYS SOME MADNESS IN LOVE. BUT THERE IS ALWAYS SOME REASON IN MADNESS. ONCE AGAIN TO THE BIRTHDAY GIRL, I BELIEVE THAT AGE DOES NOT PROTECT YOU FROM LOVE, BUT LOVE, TO SOME EXTENT, PROTECTS YOU FROM AGE. AND AS WE ALL KNOW AGE IS ALL ABOUT MIND OVER MATTER, IF YOU DON'T MIND, IT DOES NOT MATTER. HAVE A GOOD ONE, MY DOLL. I THANK YOU.

Speech Researched & Written by Marlan Padayachee GreenGold Africa Communications (greengold@telkomsa.net) +00 27 31 266 5599 or 266 1762

Billy Nair - Epitome of the Freedom Struggle in South Africa

2008-11-03T21:47:00.000-08:00

PEOPLE

BILLY NAIR – Epitome of the Struggle for Democracy
LATE in 2008 South Africa lost one of its pioneering foot-soldiers for democracy, human rights and social justice. MARLAN PADAYACHEE penned this piece on one of South Africa’s remarkable bridge-builders for peace, progress and prosperity.
Billy Nair finally laid down his arms for a “Better Life for All”, aged 79, culminating in a lifelong sacrifice for the nation’s poorest of the poor as political praise singers chronicled the life of one man and his mission to change a skewed landscape.
Nair was given a state funeral befitting a Black Nationalist leader in Durban on 30 October as his widow Elsie Nair heard speaker after speaker pour praise on her husband’s impeccable integrity as one of the leading catalysts for change during South Africa’s liberation struggle.
His casket was draped in the green, gold and black colours of the African National Congress.
Twenty years on Robben Island alongside the icons of the human drama that engulfed apartheid South Africa, notably Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and his fellow Little Rivonia saboteurs Zulu Moonsamy, Kisten Dorasamy and Curnick Ndlovu, had transformed a consummate campaigner into a gentleman of new resistance politics.
Nair returned to Durban without rancour. There was no bitterness in his voice when I interviewed him after his release from prison in February 1984. His spirit of forgiveness and hope was overwhelming at a time when state repression was at its worst. Not even a taste freedom stopped this tireless worker from achieving the big political prize.
It was this spirit of political maturity, level-headedness and humility that catapulted the former guerilla commander back into the trenches, this time navigating Operation Vula alongside Mac Maharaj, Pravin Gordhan and other ANC Umkhonto weSizwe operatives, a contingency unit in case the apartheid regime reneged on its détente deal with the ANC in the early 1990s.
By 1994, Nair was taking his seat as an ANC MP in Parliament as President Nelson Mandela ushered the new South Africa. He retired a few years ago to his constituency in Tongaat with his faithful wife Elsie who stood by this remarkable socialist-communist trade unionist throughout his political life.
The resister they called Muna, isiSotho for comrade, or the Cat, because he often landed on his feet during his fighting trade union days, was paid the highest honour by the ANC. A flag draped on his coffin was later handed to his widow, a heart-warming reminder of the life and legacy of one man they called a gallant revolutionary, true hero, legend, principled political activist, outstanding, humble and selfless leader, born organizer, underground operator, keen dancer, punter and someone who also enjoyed a good whisky and chuckle. I will always remember his charming smile, inner strength and the honour of being called Boeti, as if it was yesterday when he walked out of prison into the arms of his wife. Hamba Kahle, Chief.
MARLAN PADAYACHEE is a freelance journalist and media communications strategist, who covered the frontline politics of the anti-apartheid movement from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Karlen Padayachee on Diwali Diversity at William Mitchell

2008-11-02T20:57:00.000-08:00

Posted: October 31, 2008
Diwali Brown Bag Diversity PLP
Keynote Speaker: Karlen Padayachee
Please join us for the Hindu Diwali Diversity PLP. Diwali, the festival of
lights, marks the beginning of the New Year and one of the most
Important festivals for Hindus. Lights, bonfires, and fireworks welcome
gods, ancestors, family, and friends. There will be a time
of questions and answers at the end of the presentation..
Sponsored by:
Office of Multicultural Affairs

Media Workshop Ahead of 2009 Election in South Africa

2008-10-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

By Karen Lotter
I recently contributed to a workshop organised by Marlan Padayachee for Greengold Africa for the Democracy Development Programme.
The Three Day workshop was a multi-party one for representatives of political parties in KZN and one of my inputs was on the role of so called new media - ie Internet, e-mail campaigns, Facebook, Youtube etc in political campaigns.
Smartxchange gave me a few goodies to hand out and I encouraged the politicos to come to the Smart City Conference and wise up on all e-stuff.
I know that the masses are not yet online, but every day more people are “connecting to the grid” and with eThekwini’s broadband roll out it is only a matter of time before the statistics in our city go crazy and Internet becomes the communication medium of choice, especially for the poor and those in the outlying areas.
And the politicians - well they’d better be a few steps ahead, or the people are going to leave them behind!

Africa's Leading Orchestra Turns 25

2008-10-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

Message from the Mayor, His Worship, Councillor Obed Mlaba of the eThekwini Municipality on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra at the Durban City Hall on 23 October 2008.
On this grand and momentous occasion of the 25th anniversary celebration of the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra, I join my colleagues, city officials and the citizens of the eThekwini Municipality and the City of Durban in extending good wishes and goodwill to an organisation that has been an institution to our culturally-enriching city.
The double header celebration at the Pietermaritzburg and the Durban city halls is indeed a fitting tribute to the longstanding contribution made by the KZNPO to both sister cities in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The City of Durban and the eThekwini Municipality has enjoyed a long and cordial relationship with the KZNPO and we have witnessed some remarkable transformation changes with the organisation that straddled the old and the new order.
Changes such the appointment of Bongani Tembe as Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra and his own musical contribution along with that of his wife, Linda Bukhosini, and the multicultural diversity of the organisation could only be described as a fresh of breath air in a modern metropolis that is marketed as “One City, Many Cultures”.
Through its musical repertoire, track record, credibility and people, the KZNPO has achieved its milestone through the support of our local communities. Over the years, the UKZNPO has become the epitome of a private-public sector partnership and it has also succeeded it sharing its programme with previously disadvantaged communities.
It gives me immense pleasure and pride to extend birthday wishes to the UKZNPO and may the Orchestra continue to remain the cultural ambassadors of our city.Let’s be upbeat and celebrate this marvelous milestone. Researched and written by Marlan Padayachee GreenGold Africa Communications and published in the KZNPO 25th Anniversary Brochure on the occasion of the Durban performance under American guest-conductor Dr Leslie B Dunner on 23 October 2008.

Nad Murugan dies tragically.(News)

2008-10-16T21:43:00.000-07:00

Nad Murugan dies tragically.(News)
Article from:
Post (South Africa)
Article date:
October 1, 2008
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nad murugan Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2008 Independent News & Media PLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
BYLINE: YOGAS NAIR
FORMER trade unionist Nad Murugan, 53, pictured, was found dead at a Windermere Road lodge on Monday afternoon.
Family spokesman and Murugan's close friend, Marlan Padayachee, said family members were devastated by his tragic death.
According to police reports, Murugan, who led the Durban Indian Municipal Workers Society (Dimes) in the 1980s, allegedly ended his life.
He went on to become the first general secretary of the South African Municipal Workers Union, before relocating to Johannesburg in 1997 to take up a position with the CCMA (Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration). Murugan returned to Durban a few months ago.
...
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Tragic Death of Trade Unionist Nad Murugan

2008-10-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

He excelled as a part-time senior commissioner at the CCMA
NAD Murugan, 53, who was found hanged in Durban this week, was one of South Africa’s most militant trade unionists with outstanding negotiating, mediating and legal skills.
As a white-collar professional at the City of Durban in the 1980s, Murugan cut his teeth in trade unionism with the Durban Indian Municipal Employees’ Society, where he rubbed shoulders with blue-collar workers.
For almost a decade, he battled severe depression and alcoholism, triggered by the brutal murder of his wife Rebecca in 1992, and possibly the post-traumatic stress of the apartheid era.
Rebecca had been planning a homecoming celebration for her husband, who had completed a year-long course in labour law at Harvard University in the US, when she was bludgeoned to death by her domestic worker.
Despite this painful personal tragedy, Murugan stayed the course. After championing the grievances of poorly paid municipal workers in Durban, he moved to Johannesburg, where he excelled as a part-time senior commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
The birth of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union was to change the way municipalities dealt with workforces, reflecting Murugan’s passion — to ensure that workers enjoyed the fruits of the new nation’s march to equity.
Murugan featured in many landmark hearings, notably settling the issue of allowances and salary increases between Eskom and the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa and Solidarity trade unions, as well as disputes involving the South African Revenue Service and the Media Workers’ Association of South Africa.
Recently, back home in Durban, family members rallied around Murugan in the aftermath of another personal setback, a divorce from his second wife, Kantha Naidoo, and her emigration to Australia.
Then came a surprise call from Murugan, brimming with confidence about a new labour of love — a book about trade unionism, the new culture of conciliation, mediation and arbitration and how he viewed labour politics in a transforming South Africa.
Murugan leaves his sons, Denver and Renard. — Marlan Padayachee

The Kingfisher - A Tourism Gem in KwaZulu Natal South Africa

2008-10-15T01:19:00.000-07:00

The Kingfisher-Marlan Padayachee
Durban Dateline: Aside from SA's political intrigue and social and economic challenges, I recently revisited beaten track to explore country's domestic tourism leader, the Zulu Kingdom. Tourism is beginning to peak ahead of 2010. Everyone, from the poor vendor selling souvenirs to international tour and hospitality groups, is getting into the act to put their best foot forward to welcome 400,000 football fans from Lima to London. Egoli, Johannesburg's City of Gold and home to 70% of the country's corporate head offices, is the all-year flavor for millions of business visitors and tourists, but KwaZulu Natal is becoming a hugely popular destination "must-see" on continental Africa. Perceptions of a "Cinderella" or "Garden" province and a rural backwater or a "dead-end" Durban are being eclipsed by the skyline of a giant soccer stadium or wide-bodied runway as government and the private sector pour millions into transforming the gateway where the ancient multicultural battlefields and economic success stories of the Zulus, British, Dutch, Germans, Indians or the Portuguese.

Obituary - Nad Murugan Pioneering Trade Unionist

2008-10-09T02:22:00.000-07:00

Nad Murugan: Pioneering trade unionist
Published:Oct 05, 2008

He excelled as a part-time senior commissioner at the CCMA
NAD Murugan, 53, who was found hanged in Durban this week, was one of South Africa’s most militant trade unionists with outstanding negotiating, mediating and legal skills.
As a white-collar professional at the City of Durban in the 1980s, Murugan cut his teeth in trade unionism with the Durban Indian Municipal Employees’ Society, where he rubbed shoulders with blue-collar workers.
For almost a decade, he battled severe depression and alcoholism, triggered by the brutal murder of his wife Rebecca in 1992, and possibly the post-traumatic stress of the apartheid era.
Rebecca had been planning a homecoming celebration for her husband, who had completed a year-long course in labour law at Harvard University in the US, when she was bludgeoned to death by her domestic worker.
Despite this painful personal tragedy, Murugan stayed the course. After championing the grievances of poorly paid municipal workers in Durban, he moved to Johannesburg, where he excelled as a part-time senior commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
The birth of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union was to change the way municipalities dealt with workforces, reflecting Murugan’s passion — to ensure that workers enjoyed the fruits of the new nation’s march to equity.
Murugan featured in many landmark hearings, notably settling the issue of allowances and salary increases between Eskom and the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa and Solidarity trade unions, as well as disputes involving the South African Revenue Service and the Media Workers’ Association of South Africa.
Recently, back home in Durban, family members rallied around Murugan in the aftermath of another personal setback, a divorce from his second wife, Kantha Naidoo, and her emigration to Australia.
Then came a surprise call from Murugan, brimming with confidence about a new labour of love — a book about trade unionism, the new culture of conciliation, mediation and arbitration and how he viewed labour politics in a transforming South Africa.
Murugan leaves his sons, Denver and Renard.
— Marlan Padayachee

Tragic Death of Trade Unionist Nad Murugan

2008-10-02T02:37:00.001-07:00

Nad Murugan dies tragicallyFormer trade unionist Nad Murugan, 53, pictured, was found dead at a Windermere Road lodge on Monday afternoon.

Nad Murugan - Marlan Padayachee Comments on SABC Newsbreak Lotusfm Radio

2008-10-02T00:54:00.000-07:00

Broadcast by Ashok Ramsarup to me show details Oct 1 SABC South Africa Lotusfm Radio NewsBreak 06h30 Central African Time

trade unionist... Former trade union activist Nad Murugan, who pioneer the militancy of the municipal union of Durban during the apartheid era has died under tragic circumstances at a lodge near the city centre. 53 year old Murugan was instrumental in re-engineering DIMES - Durban Indian Municipal Employees Society - into an integrated union and later into the powerful South African Muniicipal Workers Union. Newsbreak's Prabashini Naicker asked family spokesperson Marlin Padayachee to elaborate on Murugan's death... in: out: dur: outtro: that was family spokesperson Marlan Padayachee of former trade unionist Nad Murugan, who died under tragic circumstances..

A Tribute to a Fiery Trade Unionist - Nad Murugan

2008-09-30T22:31:00.000-07:00

Tribute to Nad Murugan – Militant Trade Unionist – by Marlan Padayachee

SOUTH Africa has lost one of its most fiery and militant trade unionists with outstanding negotiating, mediating and legal skills this week. Nad Murugan, aged 53, died under tragic circumstances in Durban.
For almost a decade he had battled a severe bout of depression and alcoholism, triggered by the brutal murder of his wife by a domestic worker in 1992 and possibly the post-traumatic stress of the apartheid era.
Despite this painful personal tragedy, Murugan stayed the course. After championing the grievances of poorly paid municipal workers in Durban, he relocated to Johannesburg where he excelled as a part-time senior commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
But amid his successful professional role-playing, he appeared to be dogged and shadowed by the gruesome death of his teacher-wife Rebecca. She was busy planning a homecoming celebration for her husband, who had completed a year-long course in labour law at Harvard University, when she was bludgeoned to death by her maid at her flat.
Murugan’s year-long scholarship at the famous Ivy League landmark in Boston in the United States of America had prepared him adequately to play a powerful role in the labour movement in a democratic South Africa.
As a white collar professional at the City of Durban in apartheid- era 1980s, Murugan cut his teeth in trade unionism with the Durban Indian Municipal Employees Society, where he rubbed shoulders with the blue collar workers.
As the leader of a small union of street-sweepers and labouring gangs, established at the city’s communal Magazine Barracks by Indian indentured sugar cane labourers, he won many labour issues and staged protest marches and brought the municipality to a standstill in his confrontation with the old city council. He also pitted his talents against the might of the city’s leading corporate labour law firms.
Racial and ethnic politics was anathema to Murugan.
During this watershed period of racial turbulence, Murugan was sucked into the maelstrom of anti-apartheid politics and he nurtured and re-engineered his labour movement into an all-race union, bringing African and coloured workers into a single bargaining unit.
The birth of the powerful South African Municipal Workers Union was to change the face of how municipalities dealt with its workforce and rekindled one man’s passion to ensure that workers enjoyed the fruits of the new nation’s march to workplace equity and economic prosperity, hence the birth of the CCMA.
At the CCMA, he applied his legal mind effectively while using his mediation and arbitration skills to change rigid mindsets of employers while ensuring that aggrieved employees were treated with fairness. He also contributed his intellectual property to many caseworks and publications.
Murugan featured in many landmark hearings, notably settling the issue of allowances and salary increases between Eskom and Numsa and Solidarity trade unions, and disputes involving the South African Revenue Services and the Media Workers Association of South Africa.

Back home recently, family members in Stanger and Durban rallied around Murugan in the aftermath of another personal setback, a divorce from his second wife, Kantha Naidoo and her emigration to Australia.

Then out of the blue came a surprise call from Murugan, brimming with confidence about a new labour of love to pull together a book about the face of trade unionism, labour disputes and the new culture of conciliation, mediation and arbitration and how he viewed labour politics in a transforming South Africa.

A dream deferred, a book in the making, the labour movement is poorer without Nad Murugan.

However, amidst the humdrum of his chequered life and times, Murugan was a great single-parent to his two sons, Denver and Renard, who overcame their own personal battles, challenges and prejudices of their physical impairment and disabilities. Hamba Kahle, Nad Murugan.

Marlan Padayachee is an international freelance journalist who covered the historic political, labour and social frontline battles during the apartheid era.

A Bharata-Natyam Star Is Born - Aneka Naidoo

2008-09-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

A New Bharata Natyam Star Is Born – Aneka Divyarupa Naidoo
Bharata Natyam's latest graduate, 14-year-old Aneka Divyarupa, made a "scintillating" dance debut before an appreciative audience at the Coast of Dreams in Durban on Sunday.
The Grade 9 Crawford College schoolgirl, looking radiant and ravishing and wearing five outfits in splash of colour, elegance and exuberance, fascinated the 300 guests during her two hour-long performance at the weekend.
Her baptism of fire in the ancient art of south Indian classical dancing culminated in five years of training and tutelage by renowned dance teacher and singer Kumari Ambigay.
To the lilting songs and tunes of Kumari Ambigay and her musicians, ranging from Pillayaar, an invocation dance, to Makan Chor, a Hindi bhajan set to the leelas of little Lord Krsna, Aneka Divyarupa excelled beyond expectations with her rhythm, striking poses, timing and her myriad of brilliant facial expressions.
Her colourful graduation ceremony and ritual, known as Arangetram, was roundly endorsed by applauses, thereby paving the way for to undertake another six-month rigorous course towards become a Bharata Natyam dance tutor.
Ever since she was a little girl, Aneka Divyarupa was inspired by Bollywood screen icon Rani Mukerjee's spectacular sequence of the Bharata Natyam dance on the big screen. She has not looked back and five years later, she has earned the title, "Natyamanni" and will be referred to as Natyamanni Aneka Divyarupa. Her middle translates into the "Many divine forms of Lord Vishnu".
Interestingly, when she is not dancing with bells on her feet and waxing lyrical on stage, she assists her parents, Dr Lochan Naidoo and Julie Naidoo at the family-owned medical and drug rehabilitation centres in Merebank in Durban South and the Gateway complex in Umhlanga.
Speaking at the graduation, Dr Ronnie Pillay, leading pediatrician and executive deputy member of the South African Tamil Federation, said he was impressed by how Aneka Divyarupa combined her studies, extra-curricular dance activities in one of the world's most complex and intricate dance forms while showing compassion in her part-time work among youth and adults battling drug and alcohol addiction and abuse at the family-owned facilities.
"At her age, Aneka Divyarupa is leaving footprints for other young people to follow the pathway of an ancient dance that was almost discarded by the British Raj during the reign of colonialism in India. Fortunately, this dance form was resurrected by visionaries and its beauty and glory continues to inspire us in a rainbow nation where multiculturalism and cultural diversity has become the norm in the new South Africa," Dr Pillay said.
eThekwini Municipality Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo said he had attended dance graduations for almost a decade in political office, but was taken aback by the graduate's "stunning performance".
"I have often marveled at the passion, and exuberance displayed on stage by dancers such as Aneka Divyarupa. This unique dance form, though taxing and punishing in the run-up to the graduation, teaches young people life skills and core values such as discipline, focus, dedication, courage, perseverance, resilience, right living, personality development and respect and tolerance for others," said Naidoo.
"As you take your quantum leap into professional dance tutelage, put your best foot forward and dance and dance as if no one is looking at you."
In the Indian arts and culture world, Bharata Natyam is a classical dance originating in Tamil Nadu, a state in South India. This popular dance is said to be a 20th century reconstruction of Cathir, the art of temple dancers and derived from ancient dance forms. Bharata Natyam is accompanied by classical carnatic music, as displayed by a tight-knit musical troupe of singers and musicians who provided the Kumari Ambigay Dance Institute's 97th graduate with lilting music, bhagans and recitals.
Presenting a certificate of competence, Kumari Ambigay described her protégé as an "extraordinary candidate who had performed from heart beyond all expectations".
Proud parents Lochan and Julie Naidoo had last words: "Our third child has lived up to her name and today holds our attention and makes us reflect on our divinity and unconditional love for the Supreme Lord. She was motivated by actress Rani Mukerjee. She epitomizes youthful culture and energy in a changing social landscape where our young people are faced with western culture and the advent of technology gadgets."
Apart from dancing, Natyamanni Aneka Divyarupa loves animals, horse-riding, golf, cycling and assists at the family's addiction treatment centres.
Ends