Separated at birth? Ebagum & Gollum

In so many ways, this image of Ebagum tells everything of the way in which one man, once revered as 1980s-era Zimbabwe's greatest hope for change. Now, if only a Fellowship of the Ring could band together to unseat this dark lord from power. How long will this piece of colonial collateral damage remain in power, gloating like Gollum over his preciousssssssss ...

SA argument over Durban's Mugabe Street

South Africa's Durban municipality has denied that a road called Mugabe Street is named after Zimbabwe's leader Robert Mugabe, who won disputed polls in June 2008.

Siyabonga Mngadi, chair of the street renaming task team, told the BBC the street was named after a "local hero".
He was responding to complaints from residents quoted in the media, calling for the road to be renamed.
"Why name the street after a leader who does not respect democracy?" one told South Africa's Sowetan newspaper.

==
Okay immediate thoughts
If it's named after a local hero, can we at least know who that local hero is or was? And if not, can the Durban council at least 'fess up and get rid of the damned thang. In fact, can't we find the biggest, smelliest, most vile rubbish dump or landfill in South Africa and name that in Robert Mugabe's honour?

Mr Ebagum of Rumbabwe

Dear Mr Ebagum of Rumbabwe

It is now bleedingly obvious you are a silly little finger-wagging man. You are a despotic Tiny Tin Teapot dicatator. You are a "balance". In other weds the world considers you to be stark raving krez.

I laughed out loud yesterday morning when a 702/Capetalk news presenter very cunningly used the sentence. As Mr Mugabe faces his woorst challenge in 28 years of one man rule, it appears he is trying to exit leadership "with Grace and Dignity". For those uninformed consumers of new media, Mrs Mugabe's first name is Grace. It has not yet been established if he has any offspring, legitimate of weekend-specials called Dignity.
yet true to for Uncle Bob issued orders for fully-clothed riot police to crack down on hotels and guest houses for the sole purpose of arresting journalists who are in country without official gov-enne-ment permission.

[starts]

New York Times: "New Signs of Mugabe Crackdown in Zimbabwe"
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: April 4, 2008

Police officers patrolled Thursday in Harare, which has been tense since before elections on Saturday. Results of the presidential race have not been released.

With the government facing election results that threaten its 28-year reign, security officers raided the Miekles [sic; it's spelt Meikles] Hotel in central Harare on Thursday afternoon, searching rooms that the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, had rented for election operations, said Tendai Biti, the party’s general secretary.

About the same time, a second group of riot officers sealed off the York Lodge, a small hotel in suburban Harare that is frequented by foreign journalists. A lodge worker who refused to be identified for safety reasons said six people were detained, including Barry Bearak, a correspondent for The New York Times who was later located in a Harare jail. The identities of the others were not clear.

[ends]

Kwirikwiri

In an entry posted 23 June 2007,
an entry on the catchy South African phrase "Kwirikwiri" reads
(courtesy of Babelfish):

Kwirikwiri

Bienvenu a Kwirikwiri
Welcome to Kwirikwiri

L'origine du mo provient de l'appelation que les sud africain utilise pour parler des etranger.
The origin of the phrase comes from the appelation used by South Africans to talk about foreigners.

Je veux que ce blog soit un platform pout tout les gens qui sont en migration de s'exprimer sur les problemes qui les affectent.
I want this blog to be a platform for all emigrants to speak out about the problems affecting them.

Toutes les langues sont permises.
All languages are allowed.

Permalink:
http://kwirikwiri.lalibreblogs.be/archive/2007/06/23/kwirikwiri.html

UPDATE
2 April 2008 @ 04h45
Just heard a Security Officer on 702 Talk Radio refer to Zimbabweans as Pseudo-Zulus or Fong Kong Zulus. Well... at least they are Jen-U-Whine amaKwirikwiri.

Kwirikwiri II

So officially I am a Kwirikwiri.
This is to say I was born in another country
(Uncle Bob's Northern Limpopo Paradise).

I meet fellow amaKwirikwiri every day.

Hawkers on Greenmarket Square.
Professionals in lofty corporate positions

and places of higher (l)earning.
Radio annoucers on national radio.
Presenters on local TV.
Financial consultants.
Tsotsis roving the Cape Town train platform.
Purveyors of traditional medicine.
Hoarders of Malawi Gold and Swazi Special.
Billionaires in their homeland (US$1 = Z$100 000).
Carvers of soapstone mother and child, mvuu and nzou.
Bad people.
Good people.

Thabo Mbeki once (in)famously announced:
I am an African.
Here here.
But reaching deeper than that:
I am a Kwirikwiri.
And farking proud of it.