I’ve been thinking how it’s so easy for a blog to become one big moan — and reflecting that I’ve been doing quite a bit of that over the past few weeks. Now I’m not one of those people who believes journalists should start closing their eyes and years to all the bad and depressing stuff that’s happening, and bring us only happy thoughts. But I do think that we need to remember that it’s not all gloom and doom. There is good news out there — and often there’s something inspiring or encouraging to be found even within supposedly bad news.
So, listening to the radio yesterday, I found myself feeling quite proud and encouraged. The first thing that caused this was the news that Tanzania has lost its fourth minister on corruption charges. Andrew Chenge, the Minister for Infrastructure has resigned amid allegations that he took bribes during the purchase of a radar (See www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=752835).
No, it’s not good news that there is corruption in the top political ranks in Tanzania, but it is very encouraging that it’s being rooted out. A couple of weeks back I went on a rant about this, saying Tanzania provides a good example to South Africa — so I’m happy that this good example is continuing. What was even more heartening was the comment by the Tanzanian government spokesperson who was interviewed — he said that it is the right thing for a minister to resign, even when there’s the appearance and suspicion of impropriety. To which I can only once again say, AMEN! and hope that some of my compatriots are listening.
The second encouraging thing is also a ray of light amid bad news. It’s a terrible and very worrying thing that there’s a shipment of arms headed for Zimbabwe. But it’s wonderful that the trade unions have so far been effective in preventing the ship from docking, unloading its cargo and thus delivering this deadly package to Harare. As soon as the news broke that there was a Chinese ship in Durban harbour, with arms on board destined for Zimbabwe, the transport workers’ union Satawu went to court and successfully blocked the ship from using an SA port in this way. The International Transport Workers Federation (IFT) prevented the vessel from docking in Maputo. Now Satawu has called on unions and employers in all African countries to prevent the ship from docking anywhere on the continent (See
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/0,,2-11-1662_2309920,00.html). Cosatu, the SA trade union federation, is also calling on workers in China to support this effort to prevent arms from reaching Zimbabwe.
Who knows what the outcome of this story will be, but I am really proud that my fellow South Africans are making it as difficult as possible for these weapons to be delivered into the hands of Zimbabwe. Thabo Mbeki, are you listening?
(This post was first published on the Citizen Journalism in Africa portal at www.citizenjournalismafrica.org on 22 April)
