Tokyo For President? (POLL CLOSING)

Vote now if you'd prefer a different candidate. Meanwhile Mr Disconnected (aka President Mbeki) reconnected briefly with the country when he donned the Springbok jersey and was briefly manhandled and then hoisted on the shoulders of South Africa's champions.

The proximity and rubbing of shoulders with heroes must have worked a little magic, because shortly after the adoring thousands in the stadium cheered (for him apparently) Mbeki seemed like a man elected by the people, for the people.

He supported White continuing as Bok coach, but once the tide turned, we didn't hear a peep. So who would you want as the next president of this country? Zuma?

Read also:‘Ramaphosa’s my man’

ALERT: Mvela already taken control at Johncom?

There were strong rumours in the market late yesterday [Thursday] that Tokyo Sexwale’s Mvelaphanda group has quietly bought control of Johncom, owners of the Sunday Times, Sowetan and half of Business Day and the Financial Mail. An announcement may be made today.
Business Day understands that Mvela bought the stake in Johncom held by asset manager Allan Gray.

From Business Day and Sowetan Online:
By Peter Bruce

The transaction may have taken place late last week, just after Mvela published a cautionary notice. There is no indication how much was paid for the stake, but Allan Gray held about 30% of Johncom. Abdul David of Allan Gray described the reports as “speculation”.

Citibank recently valued that portion of Johncom which would remain, should management go ahead with plans to dispose of the Johncom stake in M-Net and hive off the stake in Caxton, at R6bn. That would imply Mvela paid about R2bn for a “forward stake” in what will be known as Opco or Avusa.

The new speculation arises out of a surprise announcement at the weekend by Johncom that it had ended talks with potential black investor groups. Johncom is still not viewed as a fully black-empowered company, and the need to become one had been driving the talks.

But Johncom withdrew a cautionary notice last week, just as Mvela was issuing one of its own.
Johncom is trying to sell its 38% stake in M-Net back to Naspers and to leave its 38% holding in Caxton, one of the country’s largest printers, in a listed shell of its own.

Terry Moolman, Caxton’s founder and owner, has taken the M-Net deal to the competition authorities.

It was accepted originally that front-running empowerment groups in the race to control Johncom were Mvela and Cyril Ramaphosa’s Shanduka group, but it may now be the case that Sexwale has done the deal on his own. It also seems clear that, by dealing directly with Allan Gray, Mvela will have avoided the many complications that could have arisen in dealing directly with Johncom management.
For the rest of this article, go here.

NVDL: And I had speculated earlier that Telkom would buy a stake, well, the new Telkom, Telkom Media. I guess they are still shedding their fixed line operations, and so in a sense it was a question of readiness and eligibility.

The Next President

NVDL: Who would you suggest is a good leader [a possible presidential candidate]?

Bullard: Personally I don’t go for this Pro Poor argument. I think Tokyo Sexwale and Cyril Ramaphosa have been nurtured – admittedly by white business – but they are internationally acceptable. They’re also very acceptable for capitalists, but not very acceptable for people in rural areas who – if they’re fanned, if they’re paid enough to say it – oh no, they’ve made a fortune therefore they’re not suitable. I’m just doing an article on cars that everyone drives; they’re all driving big shiny cars. It doesn’t matter whether they’re Pro Poor, COSATU people, members of the Communist Party or not. They’re all driving cars that no one of around this table could afford. They’ve either been given them to drive – by BMW or Jeep – but they’re very happy and proud to drive around those cars. Because in Africa you win votes by driving something big and shiny.
You don’t go electioneering in a Fiat Uno. The guys say: “Right, that gives us hope for the future.”

Running To Work

I got here a lot quicker than expected - 28:45. If it is 5km then I ran a pace that's a tad about 5 min/km which ain't bad. Also took a quarter as long for the engine to cool off.

Tonight I have a huge table tennis tournament with Alex. I've beaten him in the last few encounters. I ought to have done, since I played a lot of tabletennis when I taught Chinese kids in December last year, and eventually I had picked up their skills and tricks and was beating them in virtually every game. We've already started sending a number of 'posturing' sms in lieu of the upcoming game.

Tomorrow morning I'm gonna be doing another early morning ride. This ought to be the toughest one so far, but I seem to be raising my game in terms of cycling fitness. Running helps a lot.

The run here includes an incredibly long and steep incline. If I manage to maintain the madness and run this route once a week, I should go into buff mode before long.

Meanwhile, how to solve this:

In lieu of next year's presidential election I'd like to do a citizen mediated ‘Virtual Election’. Historically this is the domain of user-generated-content. This is how Korean based Ohmynews became so credible and very successful. The candidate who interfaced with them and their netizens actually won the election and is Korea’s current president.

It just so happens that one of the South African candidates – Cyril Ramaphosa who is a real contender – used to be on the board of this company. So what we would like to do is basically have him announce his candidacy/intentions/philosophy/ideas/promises on reporter.co.za – obviously as an improved site than it currently is – and then have citizens get involved in the process. Asking questions, debating, evaluating. Seems to me a forum would be a great resource to add to facilitate the desired level of interactivity..

What is a practical way for us to kick off a Virtual Election campaign within our current infrastructure, so that it can be activated?