Wednesday 15 October 2008

Free State

I am at an internet cafe at South Gate, big shopping mall in the south of Johannesburg. Let me write in English. Without a Swedsih keyboard it is actually much easier, at least for me. Anyway, I am just leaving a short message this time. I'm going to Free State! After all, this is where we lived four years. First stop is the farm Oelrietta outside Tweespruit, where Lil and Mann lives. A wonderful place. I will spend the evening with them and tomorrow morning I will go to Bloemfontein or Mangaung, which is the Tswana name. At 10.30 I will meet with my Prof. Thereafter I will find a place to stay and plan my time in Bloem. I have now collected lots of material for my dissertation, so I will spend some time with my lap top reading and thinking. I look forward to that.
The political situation is still very interesting. There seem to be a deep rift within the ANC. How deep? I don't know! But my gut feeling is that this is good for SA. Am I wrong? We'll see! Just one comment from radio the other day: Last month ANC replaced the president of the Nation with another person. That would have caused unrest and riots in many countries around the globe. But in South Africa it didn't. Thabo Mbeki stepped down. Peacefully! I mean, that is a sign of a mature democracy, isn't it? I also heard that it was Mbeki who got Mothlante into parliament. Maybe Mothlante is Mbekis guy?
I'll be back!

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