Contemporary Issues in South Africa

South African's national hero Nelson Mandela celebrated his 89th Birthday on  July, 18th.  Madiba was celebrated duly like every year. In Johannesburg, for example, the new Nelson Mandela organization "The Elders" was officially introduced to the public. Statesmen like the former US - President  Jimmy Carter or Secretary-General  Kofi Annan are among its members. On SABC3, a TV channel, Birthday wished by the public were aired as a streamer the whole day long and at night world famous stars like Pele and Eto'o came together in Cape Town to celebrate Mandela at a  Charity Soccer Game: "90 Minutes for Mandela". Many people regarded this game a first test for the World Cup 2010. Some of our interns were among the lucky ones to snatch tickets for the game and we do not want to withhold their photos and their impressions. The event took place on Wednesday in Newlands Stadium in the South of Cape Town.  It's theme was „Say No To Racism“. Over 35,000 supporters came to see Pele, Eto'o, Gullit, Karembeu or Radebe play. Although Pele "only" held a speech against racism, merely touched the ball for kick-off and Mandela could not be there, that did not harm the very good vibe.   „Africa XI“ played against the „Rest oft he World XI“ and the game offered good entertainment and enough suspense despite the slow pace. The game ended in the spirit of fairness and the happy occasion 3:3. 

South Africa  has  the most official languages in the world after India. Altogether 11 languages are recognized in the constitution. You will realize this at the latest when turning on the TV . You can watch news in 4 different languages within an hour. At 7.00 pm you can choose between English news on SBAC 3 and the "Nuus" in Afrikaans on SABC2. Half an hour later you can get informed about the latest event in Zulu (SABC1) or Sotho/Tswana and Sepedit (SABC2).
Various South African Soap Operas are also bilingual. They switch briskly between Xhosa or Afrikaans and English. They solve the comprehension problem by simply providing English subtitles. Here, English is considered the language of business and sciences and only 8.2 % of South Africans actually speak it at home. The most spoken languae is IsiZuli with 24 %, followed by IsiXhosa (18%) and Afrikaans with 13 %. Especially Afrikaans, which used to be called Cape Dutch,  has constantly lost its significance since the abolishment of "Apartheid" in 1994 due to the obvious historical reasons. It will be interesting to watch how the language muddle develops in South Africa.