ANC rally

Jacob Zuma receives traditional beads at the ANC rally held outside of Peddie. Picture by: Tarryn Liddell 17.04.09

Work work work

Dr Dandala addresses the press at the COPE headquaters in downtown East London. Picture by: Tarryn Liddell 16.04.09

As with most students I do not particularly like to give up my holiday in order to work unless some payment is invloved, but being a Journ student at Rhodes you quickly learn that giving up holiday to work for free is unavoidable. They give it the codename 'vac work' but in fact it is free labour or so I thought....

You see while last year I did do 'vac work' it was not all that different from the stuff we had been writing for journ class. I was interning at a local community newsletter so most of its pages were advertisments and fluffy pieces with only the occasional hard news story.

This year on the other hand I was fortunate enough to get a spot at the Daily Dispatch in East London. I can now truthfully say that I can see the value in 'vac work' besides free labour and I would go back and intern for them anyday. It was a interesting experience that opened my eyes up to the real world of investigative journalism.

Not only that but also a look into the day to day work of a newspaper photographer. I spent my Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week tagging along with the Dispatch photographers on a range of stories varying from gangsterism, elections and general interviews. I have to thank Alan, Theo, Mlondolosi and Nigel who answered my sometimes annoying questions and allowed me to tag along on their photo jobs. You guys were fabulous!

These are some on my photos from the COPE rally which I attended on Thursday 16 April and the ANC rally on Friday 17 April.

Ex Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela and Dr Dandala

The Wind Of Change

Every morning I am woken up by my alarm clock ,tuned into 5FM, which I then listen to as the painfully long and often difficult process of waking up and actually getting out of bed begins. Once I have finally managed to convince myself that I have to get up and ‘no I can’t sleep for another five minutes’ I turn up the radio and the day begins to brighten. There is nothing like good music in the morning to get your day going. But this is not the only benefit of listening to the radio in the morning as it also keeps me updated on local and international news.

One of the news items that has been mentioned almost everyday for the past few days is that of Mosiuoa Lekota and the possibility of a splinter group being formed. Lekota the former Minister of Defence and a supporter of Thabo Mbeki is considering breaking away from the ANC as he believes that the party has become “arrogant” and there has been an “elimination of internal democracy within the ANC". On Monday night ANC President Jacob Zuma announced that Lekota had been suspended from the party as a result of his plans to leave.

I have heard many opinions about whether he will actually form an opposition party, whether the party will have support and if they could be a viable vote for the 2009 elections. Some people even think that it is disappointing how he is abandoning the ANC.

I on the other hand am actually less concerned with his reasons for wanting to leave the ANC and more with the implications that another party would have on the South African party system especially if it does gain support. South Africa is currently a one party dominated system (that party of course being the ANC) but what if another party had to gain support and be able to offer an alternative to the dominate party. For this exact reason I think that a splinter party is a good idea and is in fact healthy for our party system as a dominating party is a lazy party. Even if this new party only has an effect in the long term it will be worth it as the competition and debate that will ensue will be good for both the ANC and South Africa.