GPSA Weekly Views

A couple of strange news reports in the papers and on the news yesterday in "honor" of April fools. Like the new nudist game farm where female wardens do the tour bit half naked. Their male counterparts decided this was an unfair move and very sexist as they were not allowed to undress. "Birds of Paradise" the girls were called with the guys deciding on the direct Afrikaans translation.

Then there was the story run by the Star newspaper on a proposed name change for Johannesburg. Names like Madibaburg, Jozi and eGoli are mentioned. Enough to make those without a sense of humor a bit hot under the collar.

The Zim election had very little violence but with an estimated 30% turn-out and thousands of people turned away without the opportunity to vote it will be fair to say that this election was a total scam. Pure to Zimbabwe elections.

The Star headlines (April 1) reported on the state our education department is in regarding teachers and Aids. According to this report eleven teachers a day die of Aids. The official response from the Department of Education was that these figures were lower than the general population and that assumptions were sometimes made that the cause of death was attributed to HIV/Aids where in some instances tuberculosis was the main cause.

We have 356 700 teachers at 26 700 schools. Of these some 45 thousand are HIV positive. Some 4 000 teachers died last year of which 80% were younger than 45 years of age. Kwa-Zulu Natal is still rife with the disease with the Western Cape the lowest at 1,1% compared to Natals 21,8%.

It would be an interesting excercise to do within our armed forces.

Another disturbing trend (also reported in The Star) are building hi-jackers. The Johannesburg inner city seems to be the prime target for these criminals who invade empty buildings and then sub-let the apartments. With our brilliant law being on the side of the criminal, it's costing property owners a fortune to evict these people.

The owner of an office block that's been renovated located in Main Street had his urgent application for an eviction order overturned by our courts (with costs - some R27 thousand) due to the fact that it was "not urgent". The hi-jackers of this building is making some R20 000 a month on rentals whilst the owner is fighting this case in court. An eviction order can cost between R200 and R366 thousand depending on the amount of people that has to be moved. And there's nothing to stop these guys from "re-taking" the building after they've been evicted. Then the whole process starts from scratch again. In one case a property consultant acting on behalf of 28 building owners have spent R12 million in the past three years on legal and eviction costs.

Not a good investment after all, won't you agree?

Weekly View
	1 April 2005
A couple of strange news reports in the papers and on the news yesterday in "honor" of April fools. Like the new nudist game farm where female wardens do the tour bit half naked. Their male counterparts decided this was an unfair move and very sexist as they were not allowed to undress. "Birds of Paradise" the girls were called with the guys deciding on the direct Afrikaans translation. Then there was the story run by the Star newspaper on a proposed name change for Johannesburg. Names like Madibaburg, Jozi and eGoli are mentioned. Enough to make those without a sense of humor a bit hot under the collar. The Zim election had very little violence but with an estimated 30% turn-out and thousands of people turned away without the opportunity to vote it will be fair to say that this election was a total scam. Pure to Zimbabwe elections. The Star headlines (April 1) reported on the state our education department is in regarding teachers and Aids. According to this report eleven teachers a day die of Aids. The official response from the Department of Education was that these figures were lower than the general population and that assumptions were sometimes made that the cause of death was attributed to HIV/Aids where in some instances tuberculosis was the main cause. We have 356 700 teachers at 26 700 schools. Of these some 45 thousand are HIV positive. Some 4 000 teachers died last year of which 80% were younger than 45 years of age. Kwa-Zulu Natal is still rife with the disease with the Western Cape the lowest at 1,1% compared to Natals 21,8%. It would be an interesting excercise to do within our armed forces. Another disturbing trend (also reported in The Star) are building hi-jackers. The Johannesburg inner city seems to be the prime target for these criminals who invade empty buildings and then sub-let the apartments. With our brilliant law being on the side of the criminal, it's costing property owners a fortune to evict these people. The owner of an office block that's been renovated located in Main Street had his urgent application for an eviction order overturned by our courts (with costs - some R27 thousand) due to the fact that it was "not urgent". The hi-jackers of this building is making some R20 000 a month on rentals whilst the owner is fighting this case in court. An eviction order can cost between R200 and R366 thousand depending on the amount of people that has to be moved. And there's nothing to stop these guys from "re-taking" the building after they've been evicted. Then the whole process starts from scratch again. In one case a property consultant acting on behalf of 28 building owners have spent R12 million in the past three years on legal and eviction costs. Not a good investment after all, won't you agree?	Past Views Current Joke Past jokes Gallery Links Current Exchange Rate Daily News Headlines
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