Lip Service

2004-08-20 10:24

Johannesburg - A selection of quotes from and about southern and South Africa published in the media during the past week.

"Remember, it is wise when the facts change to change one's mind. It is a very bad idea to be dogmatic about anything." - SA Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni, just before announcing an unexpected 0.5% decrease in interest rates.

"We don't know yet what the cost is going to be. We are still going to tender for the cards but we won't charge South Africans R120...that is a ridiculous figure." - Home Affairs Department director-general Barry Gilder on the cost of a proposed new identity card.

"This has been, excuse the pun, on the cards for sometime. Certainly a lot has been in the media recently about fraudulent SA passports but we have had this in the pipeline for some time." - Gilder.

"Thank you to Charles Dempsey. We were not ready for 2006." - Truman Prince of the SA Football Association executive committee. South Africa lost the right to host the 2006 soccer world cup by a single vote to Germany when New Zealander Charles Dempsey abstained from voting, infuriating the South African public.

"It was the highlight of my life. Refereeing a match between the All Blacks and the Springboks is any ref's dream - it's just unbelievable." - Irish referee Donal Cortney who took over from Welshman Nigel Williams in the Tri-Nations test at Ellis Park.

"We did it. We are number one." - South African Olympic swimming team member Lyndon Ferns, as fellow-swimmer Ryk Neethling completed the last stage of the men's 400m freestyle relay for a gold medal and an Olympic record.

"Nam still remains (as) relevant today as it was in 1961 when it was launched in Belgrade." - South Africa's permanent representative at the United Nations, Dumisani Kumalo, on the Non-Aligned Movement's ministerial conference in Durban.

"We are tired of being lectured on democracy by the very countries which, under colonialism, either directly denied us the rights of citizens or were indifferent to our suffering and yearnings to break free and be democratic." - Tanzania's President Benjamin Mkapa, on Western pressure on the Southern African Development Community to ensure free and fair elections in Zimbabwe in 2005.

"Free and fair elections are not a 48 hour event, and a climate of oppression, violence, and intimidation during the year preceding them will nullify any chance that they will be truly free and fair." - The Democratic Alliance's Joe Seremane, on Zimbabwe.

"Now they are here. There is nowhere else for them to go." - Advocate Paul Hoffman, telling the Constitutional Court that the Rail Commuters Action Group had explored all possible avenues to improve safety on trains before approaching the court.

"They are now a kindergarten for criminals." - How Hoffman described commuter trains.

"There is crime in the central business district, in hospitals, in housing estates. When must the courts get involved? What criteria must we use to assess where the government has failed in protecting the rights of commuters?" - Judge Albie Sachs, saying if the court acted in this case, it would have to intervene in all "massive and intractable problems in our society".

"HIV/Aids has placed me on my knees and destroyed my family, in spite of the lifestyle stringently maintained by my wife and me and the social status we enjoy." - Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, two of whose children - daughter Princess Mandisi Sibukakonke and son Prince Nelisuzulu Benedict Buthelezi - recently died from Aids-related diseases.

"Thanks to our new navy we will soon be rubbing soldiers, I mean shoulders, with the French at sea in the Indian Ocean." - Vice Admiral Johan Retief, at the signing ceremony for a South African-French naval co-operation agreement.

"A highly flexible boutique provider of turnkey mining projects." - How a company called Metallurgical Design and Management, based in Randburg, described itself.

"If this means that thousands of licences have to be confiscated, then so be it." - Willie Hofmeyr, head of the Special Investigating Unit, on a countrywide probe into irregularly issued drivers' licences.

- SAPA