Impending numismatic bonanza as South African Reserve Bank prepares to release new series of Banknotes featuring Nelson Mandela

Earlier this year the South African Reserve Bank announced that the President, Jacob Zuma, would be making an announcement on the 11th of February. No further details were released about the annoucement. Since the date fell on a Saturday there was considerable speculation about the nature of the event which resulted in some panic by investors which in turn led to the Rand devalueing by 2%.

There was some relief when it was announced that the Reserve Bank would be introducing an entirely new series of banknotes which would all feature Nelson Mandela on the obverse. This new series will not stray away from the existing “big five” theme as the reverse of the banknotes will all keep their respective wild animal portraits as currently found on the current series in circulation.

The South African Reserve Bank has set the date of release as Tuesday, the 6th of November 2012. The release date also co-incides with the US general election – an event which could possibly take some press exposure from the new series’ release.

The trade in South African banknotes has always been eclipsed by the trade in coins – especially circulation coins featuring Nelson Mandela. These very coins have seen stratospheric rises in value. Is the Reserve Bank trying to claw back some of this Madiba magic by the introduction of this new series? What is for certain is that every South African is guaranteed to get a piece of Mandela in their change and that the new series will be an instant hit amongst collectors and non-collectors alike.

Geely South Africa: When is a 5-star rating a bad thing?

Geely recently re-entered the South African car market. They currently have three models on offer: The Geely MK Hatch, Sedan and the LC Mini Hatch. Let’s focus on the LC Mini hatch or the Panda (as it’s called in other markets).

The common perception amongst most car buyers is that the large majority of Chinese imports in South Africa are poor copies of well known brands. The LC Mini hatch however, is being touted as the first Chinese car which has been wholly developed and designed in China – with a 5-star safety rating by C-NCAP.

The car’s design looks quite unique – apart of the rear end – which looks very similar to the Toyota Aygo/Peugeot 107/Citroen C1.

That safety rating – quite amazing don’t you think? Could this be the ground breaking vehicle that starts the turn around in Chinese build quality? Well, let’s take a look at the agency that awarded the Geely LC Mini hatch with this sought after 5-star rating.

It’s called C-NCAP – so surely the name implies that it is affiliated with the famous Euro NCAP agency? Not so. C-NCAP is an abbreviation for Chinese New Car Assessment Program. It was formed in 2006 and has tested over 100 cars to date. Then, why don’t other independent car reviewers carry more information regarding C-NCAP test results? The answer is simple: C-NCAP is controversial and untrustworthy.

Lets take a look at a recent report by China Auto Web:

(1) The program is non-authoritative due to insufficient recognition and participation. Although its organizer, CATARC, is a government-affiliated institute, C-NCAP is not based on, and does not represent, a wide consensus on vehicle safety issues between the government, industry and consumers. To a large degree, it is not operated in an open way. And as acknowledged below, the standards it puts forward are not “official or industry standards”–nor are they intended to be, but rules controlled by a business-like organization, that is, the CATARC.

Thus said Li Weijing, head of C-NCAP’s Administration Department:

“The standards [for vehicle safety] we formulate are not official standards (from the government) or industry standards. You can say they are standards from a company–that is, rules and procedures set by our center (CATARC), which can be regarded as a business. As we are the maker of the rules, we are the dominant and leading factor.”

(2) The program lacks neutrality and fairness due to its for-profit activities. Receiving no direct funding from the government, it has to come up with the money to smash cars through skillful means (it sells not only a car magazine but new cars itself). According to its supervisors, CATARC pays about 80% the program’s running cost, which reached millions of US dollars each year, while automakers cover the rest (they pay big to buy smashed models and data of the tests, among other things, from C-NCAP). For those automakers who choose to pay for the crash tests of their own models, the program routinely selects as test cars models of top trim levels, which come with more safety features, even if those models are rare on the market.

Can money buy more stars? The readers can judge for themselves from the following statement made in a highly frank–also puzzling–way by the chief of CATARC, Zhao Hang.

“In a market economy, there cannot be any “third party” in an absolute sense, or an enterprise that is not for-profit. We, in the auto industry, is to serve the members of that industry. And I feel it is totally normal to charge a little for our service. If this can be described as for-profit, if the served and serving can be described by such a relation of profit, then we are all in that relation. We do not charge for anything other than service, or favor any particular company we serve.”

(3) Compared with NCAP tests in other parts of the world, the tests C-NCAP carries out are often insufficient, less strict, and based on compromised requirements. C-NCAP administers three tests: frontal of 100% and 40% overlap and side impact, omitting pedestrian protection, rear impact, and side impact pole tests. And it usually crashes cars at a lower speed than other NCAPs, opting for 50km/h in the frontal test–compared with 64km/h in Europe, Australia and Latin America, and 56km/h in the US.

What’s more, a model can get credits for many extra-test factors, such as how many airbags it has, whether the seatbelt reminders are installed, and the way it gives out these extra credits often seems non-consistent and arbitrary.

(4) Currently most Chinese consumers, which the C-NCAP is supposed to serve, do not trust it. Even the state television, CCTV, made a special program casting doubts on its validity. According to a poll conducted by sina.com.cn, the most frequented Chinese internet portal, 72% of the over 4,000 people asked say they do not think the program’s crash tests are fair; only 6% think they are.

“Paint me black and call me Sophie”

“Paint me black and call me Sophie” is a phrase commonly used in popular culture in South Africa. It can be interpreted as derogatory, but its use is usually in jest. The origins of this phase are unknown.

It would usually be used by a Caucasian as an expression of disgust after being assigned with a menial task usually associated with a casual labourer. Since a large percentage of casual labourers in South Africa are non-white (due to legacy and social reasons), the term “paint me black” refers to directly to this. Sophie is also a common name amongst the population but this can be substituted for another name without loosing the meaning.

Deputy President of South Africa will not be pleased if “foreigners” fill the stadiums for the FIFA 2010 World Cup

A touch of xenophobia: Baleka Mbete

Now here’s something that would surely make the most ardent football supporter cringe.
At a recent press briefing in Pretoria following a day-long 2010 inter-ministerial committee meeting, the deputy president of South Africa, Baleka Mbete, expressed her “disappointment” at the fact that South Africans (and Africans in general) were not scrambling to buy tickets for the 2010 world cup. She also expressed alarm at the fact that a large majority of the tickets were being purchased by non-South Africans in countries such as the US, Europe, Canada and Australia. She finished her rant with this deliciously xenophobic gem, “It will be sad to find stadiums filled with people from elsewhere”. Brilliant.

South Africans set new world record for the longest kebab: event largely ignored by mainstream media

On the 17th of October, Arcelor Mittal Steelworks in Newcastle KwaZulu-Natal, played host to the world record attempt for the world’s longest kebab.

The charcoal being prepared next to the assembled Sosatie

This spectacular event was somewhat overshadowed by minor political squabbling as well as an international financial crisis. I’m sure that currency speculators also used the opportunity to plan the 37 per cent devaluation of the local currency.

This is the Solidarity Team preparing their section of the Sosatie.

Anyway, all of that aside, the event was truly amazing when you consider that it took 40 teams 2 days to prepare and cook the 2000 metre long kebab. The event was also associated with 15 charitable organisations and the final Kebab was distributed amoungst local feeding schemes in low income areas.

The South African Kebab is known locally as a Sosatie (pronounced “sauce-sah-tee”).

The term is derived from Cape Malay, where “sate” means skewered meat and “saus” means spicy sauce. The traditional preparation involves mutton chunks marinated overnight in fried onions, chillies, garlic, curry leaves and tamarind juice, then threaded on skewers and cooked on a barbecue or grill.

One of the conditions set out by Guinness World Records was that the Sosatie had to be cooked as one continuous piece. The Sosatie was skewered on 5mm steel rod and mounted in sections that were suspended above the fire on metal rods. The sections were then coupled together to form one continuous piece.

The effort was hampered somewhat by scattered rain, but this did not dampen the enthusiasm of the participants. The final length was 2.1 kilometres, some 600 metres more than the previous record.

Oscar Pistorious leads revolt against badly-stiched pyjamas: official kit ditched in favour of black suits

The South African Paralympics team ditched their official Olympic opening ceremony kit in favour of black suits.

Oscar Pistorius, who led the revolt against the teams’ organisers with a tirade of complaints and accusations, likened the official kit to “badly-stitched pyjamas”.

The South African Olympic teams’ dress has been unofficially dubbed the worst kit of the Beijing 2008 games by bloggers and commentators alike – a sentiment echoed by millions of South Africans.