Flaming Lamborghini, Sardines, Death and Dispair

The week started with coverage of the Netherlands vs. Slovakia Round of 16 game being played at Moses Mabhida stadium on Monday. The Dutch fans were out in full force, with about a thousand of them partying down by the beach front, decked out in orange. Many of them were dressed as pilots or air stewards – a play on the legend of the Flying Dutchman. They certainly know how to have a good time, and at 2pm they headed toward the stadium, cheering and singing.

On Tuesday morning we heard that the case of the police constable arrested for hiring a hit man to assassinate a police colonel investigating him for corruption had taken another twist. The accused had died in custody in a police complex adjacent to the Cato Manor station. The police allege that the accused, Dube attempted to wrest a pistol off an officer who was escorting him to the bathroom, so the officers present were forced to shoot Dube. We headed over to the complex to shoot footage of the bathroom, bullet-ridden toilet cubicle and all. The police there were cheery and very friendly to us, but I got the sense they weren’t people you mess with. Indeed, something like 260 people were killed by the police in KwaZulu-Natal alone last year. Troy and Terrence were not very keen to hang around for long after we shoot the piece to camera, apparently it annoys the cops.

Wednesday was what is referred to as a “Death and Despair” story. A man’s body was discovered beside a road in Umlazi, just south of Durban, with a bizarre accompaniment of items – a dead chicken, a knife, two candles, a bucket and a pair of jeans. This all pointed to a ritualistic type of killing – to gain what is known as mhuti. Often this is done in accordance with certain traditional beliefs that see human body parts as being very powerful in spells or magic. It was an unsettling experience being there; I had never seen a dead body before, particularly one that had been mutilated as this man had. Easily the worst part was when the man’s family members arrived however – obviously highly distraught. I felt extremely uncomfortable – we were severely intruding into this awful situation. I know if I was in the place of this family, I wouldn’t want dozens of people standing around watching (quite a crowd had gathered by this point), particularly people with cameras capturing the whole thing. Terrance and Troy had seen this sort of situation many times before – it goes along with being a journalist I suppose.

Thursday and Friday were both a little quieter and less intense. Thursday saw us down at uShaka Marine World, reporting on the absence of the Sardine Run that usually comes up the coast during winter. Friday we headed to the court on Pinetown to report on a murder trial.

Friday night and Saturday were great fun – the others came down from Ladysmith and Eshowe for the weekend. We headed out on the town to Florida road, got dinner at a burger joint, then headed to some of the bars along the street. On Saturday we got up late, went to one of the best places for a bunny chow in Durban – the Britannia, before hitting the beach and the FIFA Fan Fest. We watched the Germany destroy Argentina lying on the sand, then walked back to the backpackers. That night we hit up the SunCoast complex, definitely a night to remember – or not, thanks to a cocktail known as a ‘Flaming Lamborghini.’

One more week at eTV, then on to St. Lucia and Kruger!

Week 3

Last weekend our group headed up to one of South Africa’s most iconic landscapes – the Drakensberg Mountains. Heading north from Durban, we picked up Matt and Braveen from Eshowe, before turning inland towards Ladysmith, where we met Kenneth, Caitlin and Harrison. The landscape is quite different from the coast, featuring long, rolling hills of dry grassland, interspersed with the occasional bush or tree. It reminded me a little bit of the Maniototo back home in Central Otago.

Drakensberg means ‘Dragon Mountains’ in Afrikaans, whereas their name in Zulu is Quathlamba, meaning ‘Battlement of Spears.’ Both of these names encapsulate the feeling and impression that one gets upon visiting the region. We stayed at the Inkosana Lodge in Champagne valley, in the foothills of Champagne Peak, which was really pleasant, offering a wonderful view of the landscape. On Saturday our group took a short day walk up to a landmark known as ‘The Sphinx,’ which offered even an even more impressive view of our surroundings. Returning to the lodge that afternoon, we enjoyed a barbeque (braai in South African-speak).

This past week at eTV and in Durban offered a whole new range of experiences that I will certainly remember fondly. Monday saw us reporting on a case involving a constable in the police force who had hired a hit man to assassinate a senior police officer who was investigating him under corruption charges. Tuesday was the highlight of the week – I was fortunate enough to attend the World Cup match between South Korea and Nigeria in Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium. Even for someone such as myself, who knows little about the intricacies of soccer, the match was a fantastic experience. I must admit that I had become used to hearing a commentator when watching matches on TV – none was to be heard over the sound of the vuvuzela horns. More than one person was sporting earplugs at the stadium that night. In the end, despite the match being a 2-2 draw, it was definitely one of the better ones that I had watched, the enormous excitement in the stadium undoubtedly contributing to this.

Thursday saw us at King Shaka International airport, searching for Portuguese and Brazilian fans in advance of the match between the two nations in Durban on Friday night. King Shaka airport, named after the famous Zulu king is actually Shaka-less at the moment, the original statue having been removed by the authorities, being deemed insufficiently respectful of the famous warrior. Until a replacement is forged, only two accompanying statues of oxen remain. We eventually found a large group of Brazilians, though alas, none of them spoke English well enough for an interview, nor did any of us speak Portuguese. Instead, we headed down to the Fan Fast on Durban’s beachfront, where we were much more successful in locating fans.

Friday was the day of the big game between Portugal and Brazil, probably the most highly anticipated match of the group stage. Along with Troy and Terrence (the bureau chief), we spent the day reporting on the goings on in Durban ahead of the match. It certainly was hectic; we jumped in front of traffic, climbed scaffolding and accosted fans. News runs on a tight deadline – at one point we were crouched over a laptop beside the beach, uploading the story via a 3G data card. It was all worth it though, seeing Troy’s story as the headline for eTV’s 7 o’clock prime time news was very cool, even if the match ended up being a bit of a disappointment (0-0 draw).

That night I headed out with Troy and a couple of her friends to Florida road, sort of the center of nightlife in Durban. We hit up a couple of bars and nightclubs, which was a lot of fun, especially since it was such a nice night, being really warm. Last night I went with Zayn, the sports reporter at eTV, and a number of other journalists to Maxxie’s, a bar/dining location in Umlhazi, a township in south Durban. The experience is quite unique; Maxxie’s is not really a restaurant in the traditional sense of the word. It features a bar with a large outdoor patio area with a number of seats and tables – along with speakers blasting techno, house and rap music at a few thousand decibels. We all put in 30 rand (about $4) and in turn received a whole heap of meat, along with some mealie pap (sort of a ground up corn, though it looks like mashed potato to me and has a similar texture). We proceeded to dig in (no utensils here, eating with hands is expected) and quickly filled ourselves up with as much as we could eat. We watched the USA-Ghana game and just generally had a great time. Ghana, as the only African team left in the tournament received a huge show of support from the crowd.

Tomorrow it’s back to eTV – I’m sure this week will be just as exciting as the last!

Protests and such

I rose early this morning for a run, having become restless with my lack of exercise since arriving in the country. The township of Cato Manor is almost as busy at 5:30am as it is during the day. The horns of minibus taxis blare almost incessantly, with people awaiting them on every corner. I was the focus of a number of stares, running for running’s sake is not a common activity here.

Arriving at the eTV offices at around 8, I quickly join Troy, one of the reporters and Neil, a camera operator and head downtown to cover a protest. FIFA had contracted a private company to provide the security for last Sunday night’s match between Germany and Australia. Over 2000 guards were hired by the company, and in a country with 25% unemployment, they had no difficulty finding enough people. The conflict arose when the security company reneged on its agreement, either failing to pay the guards, or paying them far below the required amount. The guards were each paid around 200 Rand (about US$26), which is even less than what they would receive for working at a local soccer match.

Rioting broke out late on Sunday night after the match. The protestors threw bottles and stones, with the police firing back with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons. This morning a huge group of the protestors met at Durban train station for negotiations with Stallion, the security company. Around 30 police officers were on hand, shotguns at the ready. Hundreds of people were milling about, with several chanting and shouting with megaphones in Zulu, which obviously made it very hard to understand what exactly was happening. Neil grabbed some footage of the crowd while Troy interviewed a couple of people. At one point she told me to stand behind the police, in case rubber bullets started flying. It didn’t come to that, though the crowd did get quite excited, before surging out of the eastern side of the station. Us three ran along side them, camera equipment in tow, as the throng advanced towards Moses Mabhida stadium, the site of the World Cup matches in Durban.

A large police contingent was waiting for them as they arrived, blocking off the roads to traffic in response to the crowd. After a few minutes of arguing, the police funneled the protestors into a fenced gravel lot across the road from the stadium. Presumably this was done to reduce the chance of anything being destroyed or set on fire. By this time a large number of reporters and photographers from various press and media outlets had arrived. Neil told me that their presence was why the police were showing restraint with the crowd, whereas ordinarily things would probably have turned ugly. After much back and forth between the protestors and the police, the security company eventually relented and agreed to honor their contracts. One at a time, the guards were let out of the gravel lot, where they turned in their hi-visibility vests for an envelope of cash. As Troy pointed out, this was another amazing blunder on the part of Stallion – since no one was showing ID, or even signing for the envelopes, they had no way of recording who had been paid, or even who was employed. Needless to say, they won’t be providing the security for tomorrow night’s match between Spain and Switzerland. After a few more interviews, we headed back to the office to edit and write the script for broadcast.

Tomorrow is Youth Day, a national holiday commemorating the 1976 youth uprising in Soweto. I’m going out with the reporters to report on the events of the day, then hopefully heading to a fan park to watch the South Africa vs. Paraguay match in the evening.

More stuff

This week’s been really interesting so far:

Tuesday – travelled with Morgan, one of the eNews reporters to a part of Durban called Phoenix just north of the main city. Last week the police broke into a house there and shot three brothers while they (allegedly) lay in bed. We were reporting on a meeting between the family and the Independent Complaints Directorate, who are sort of an independent body who investigate things like this.

Wednesday – got up at 5am to travel all the way to iMfolozi Game Park in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Rhino poachers have been a big problem in South Africa lately. They’re getting high tech too, using helicopters and night vision equipment. We were reporting on the game parks efforts to repel the poachers and protect the rhinos. The game park is extremely beautiful, in a vast, lonely sort of way. We saw rhinos, giraffes, zebra, springboks, monkeys and even a cheetah (picture attached). It was an awesome day, had a lot of fun.

Today – drove around Durban with Nono, another eNews reporter, looking for sangomas, traditional healers. We were getting their predictions for the outcome of tomorrow’s soccer match between South Africa and Mexico and the national team’s chances for the rest of the World Cup. The spirits weren’t totally in agreement about the score, but they did point toward a win for Bafana Bafana tomorrow, so we’ll see! Later that afternoon I went with Terrance, the bureau chief and Zayn, the sports journalist to film the Cameroonian soccer team practice at a school in North Durban.
More updates to come!

First post!

South Africa has been absolutely amazing so far – since arriving a week and a half ago, it’s been one incredible experience after another.

We landed at Johannesburg’s O.R Tambo airport on May 27, spending the night at a backpacker’s close to the airport. The next morning we were taken on a tour of Soweto, the famous township to the south west of the city by Zed McGladdery, our guide and all-round awesome guy. In Soweto we visited the Hector Pietersen museum, named after the teenager who was shot during the 1976 youth uprising, before heading to a shebeen for lunch. Afterwards we headed to Vilakazi Street, visiting Nelson Mandela’s old home.

The next morning we caught an early flight to Cape Town, in my opinion one of the more picturesque cities in the world. The first day involved a trip to Robben Island, then up Table Mountain for some amazing views of the sea and city. Day two featured a trip down to the Cape itself, which is part of a nature reserve, featuring penguins, baboons and other wildlife. That afternoon we took a tour of South Africa’s oldest wine estate, Groot Constantania (I’ve probably spelt that wrong). I’m not much of a wine fan, but it was pretty interesting nonetheless. On our final day in the city, we visited the hospital that saw the world’s first successful heart transplant before driving north to visit an ostrich farm.

We departed bright and early again the next day, flying northeast into Durban. The first thing that struck me was the weather, the joke is that Durban has two seasons – summer and summer. It really has been great to walk around in shorts and jandals in the sunshine during the middle of winter. I’m currently staying with a homestay family in one of the townships in Durban called Cato Manor. My host family has been incredibly welcoming and I felt at home very quickly. It’s been great getting to know them, going out with my host brother and helping my host sister with her math homework. I’ve even been learning a little bit of Zulu, though my pronunciation is awful!

Today was my first working for eNews, part of the independent broadcaster eTV here in South Africa. Within only a few minutes of arriving this morning, I was travelling downtown with Zayne, one of the journalists in the bureau and Tituka, one of the camera operators. We headed to Durban train station, where we caught a train to the new Moses Mabhida station, which services the amazing new stadium of the same name. We were covering the official opening of the stadium by the Mayor of Ethekwini (the larger metropolitan area encompassing Durban) and the South African Minister of Transport. It was really cool to see Zayne and Tituka in action; they interviewed a couple of the dignitaries, got footage of the event and recorded their ‘piece to camera’ segments. I even got to record one of me speaking in front of the camera, which I’ll have to post sometime. Back at the eNews office, we downloaded all the footage before writing our scripts, which get sent to the head office in Johannesburg for broadcast that night. It was an awesome day, I can tell I’m going to love interning there.