The Democratic Alliance today unveiled their new social media strategy to a small audience in Cape Town comprising journalists, party members and, believe it or not, bloggers. I was one of the lucky ones to crack an invite yesterday afternoon and I have to admit I was extremely excited to hear what the DA had up their sleeves.

Cape Town City Mayor and DA Leader, Helen Zille gave the first speech highlighting the DA’s progressive and forward thinking strategy. Mayor Zille said that,

this new digital strategy will reach South African voters in exciting and groundbreaking ways. Our approach is to build a personalised relationship with the DA’s supporters by involving them in our activities and campaigns.

The speech was followed by another from DA CEO Ryan Coetzee and he took us through the elements of the new communication strategy. This new strategy includes some of the following:

• Two Interactive websites
• Online advertising and marketing
• SMS communication
• Mobile web access
• Engagement with voters via social networking and in the blogosphere

New DA website launched

Then the two new websites were unveiled. The first was the DA’s main website www.da.org.za which has seen a major facelift and integration with various forms of Social Media. Some of this include videos embedded via Vimeo and Times Multimedia, a new forum component and various other social tools for sharing information. It’s cutting edge, usable and really puts the pressure on the other political parties. A job well done.

Contribute To Change

The new contribute to change website is equally impressive at first glance. The core of the website is to allow people the freedom to bring upon change in our country and the site has a strong social networking aspect to it that facilitates this process. In addition to the social networking you can pledge your support to making a change in the following ways:

• Build a team by recruiting your friends.
• Spread the word by sending letters to all the major newspapers and talk shows.
• Attend or host a DA event.
• Make phone calls and reach out to voters.
• Go door to door.
• Donate some cash.

Each of these allow individuals to take action and contribute to change as Helen puts it. I noted that while this website was extremely well put together I worried about what the value proposition was for end users and laymen like you and I. My first impression of the site was that this is very heavily directed to helping the DA and while this is positive I struggled to see how this benefited consumers – in other words, what were the DA doing for us in return.

For those who have heard Helen Zille speak you’ll know that she delivers a convincing and strong message and she was very quick to answer my concerns. The whole aim of the DA is to ultimately shift focus on opposition toward the focus on our country and how we as citizens could help make a difference. While I do respect this and it was a convincing argument I am still concerned that an ANC or COPE supporter wouldn’t use this website as it’s too heavily focused on the DA.

I wanted to ask, but thought not to at the time, whether or not the DA had given any thoughts to making this website agnostic – similar I guess to the new SA Elections website – as this could really bring the whole country together and not just DA supporters. If the Contribute To Change website was powered by the DA yet remained in the background I think this website could be far more successful in the long term.

What has really impressed me though is that the DA are by far the most progressive political party in South Africa. The ANC’s attempts at social media have been dismal and these two new sites by the DA really highlight their commitment to long term change in our country.

Both the new DA and Contribute To Change websites are built off open-source technology, specifically WordPress, BBPress and BuddyPress, and it’s great to see the use of open-source to drive the DA’s campaign.

I have to commend the DA, their web development team and the guys running the social media strategy behind the scenes on a job well done. I’m only worried that the Contribute To Change website is a little too advanced for a South African audience but only time will tell.

The new text now reads:

“Trevor Andrew Manuel (born 31 January 1956) served as South Africa’s Minister of Finance. He was Finance Minister from 1996 until 2008, making him one of the country’s longest-serving finance ministers.”

The power of social media I guess!

I don’t think even Zapiro realised just how pertinent his cartoon of Zuma raping the justice system (below) would be in the days leading after its publication in the Sunday Times.

Our acquitted rapist, fraudster and down right dimwit has successfully managed to escape any prosecution and in turn flip the whole political situation on its head by having the ANC recall Mbeki. I guess it’s a case of he who laughs last?

I’ll state this outright – I hate Zuma and I despise anyone who supports him however, I do think this new political turmoil is very much needed in a country that has lived far too long under Mbeki’s denialist regime.

Mbeki is a clown. HIV/Aids never existed, Mugabe was never the problem in Zimbabwe and crime in our country was never an issue. These are just some of his insane beliefs we’ve been subjected to over the last few years and I’m happy we’ve seen the end of it.

While I really think Mbeki being ousted is a positive thing I’m deeply concerned about where we go to from here. I have no faith in Zuma or his political allies and I can’t see how the new regime is going to be any better – in fact, I think it’s going to get worse.

Overall I have to say these are troubled and uncertain times and I’m watching the political space in trepidation of what will happen next.

Last night we published a brand new Xenophobia topic page on Afrigator which highlights everything that is being covered throughout Africa about the recent xenophobic attacks in our country.

Stii and Mark worked like mad on this yesterday and I’m super impressed with the way in which the page has turned out. I urge you to read the blog post on the Afrigator blog as it breaks down this page into much greater detail.

One thing I found particularly interesting to see is how many blog posts have been written about the xenophobic attacks. As of last night a total of 217 blog posts have been published compared to only 33 news articles on the same topic.

I really believe that this just highlights how everyone in South Africa is condemning these attacks and the fact that so many blog posts have been written is just awesome for awareness.

At this stage though I’m not sure what value 217 blog posts have on actually making a difference but the more we expose this issue the more I would hope it applies pressure on the powers that be to resolve this issue once and for all.

Help spread the word guys… let’s stop this senseless killing.

I remarked earlier in the week that these xenophobic-related attacks reminded me of the township violence in the 80′s and after seeing this photo story there is no doubt in my mind that we have a civil war on our hands.

One of the most moving books I’ve ever read was about four South African photographers, Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich, Ken Oosterbroek and Joao Silva called the Bang-Bang Club.

Their story documents their experiences within the townships of South Africa during the Apartheid era and their photographs illustrate the murderous struggle between ANC and Inkatha Freedom Party in what was the hostel wars.

Not only did it paint a gruesome picture into what photographers and journalists had to go through during this troubled time but it gave me a very harrowing and disturbing insight into the township violence that was taking place while I was playing blissfully in suburbia.

For the first time in my life really, I became aware of how brutal and savage we as a nation are and I hoped we’d never have to see the same thing happening ever again.

Cue 1994, democratic society and finally this country is given hope. Under Mandela we live the dream and never before has the world seen a country transform as quickly as it did in all aspects of life. Or did it?…

What has become clear in my mind the last two years is just how oppressed our nation feels. We lived in this cloud of euphoria during the Mandela years but under Thabo Mbeki’s reign we’ve seen very real issues come to the fore which are less than pretty.

Two core issues come to mind. First is that South Africa has the highest HIV/Aids infection rate in the world and second is that South Africa has one of the worst (if not the worst) murder rate. These two issues have existed even during the honeymoon period but it’s taken us 14-odd years to finally realise that we have some serious underlying issues that not even Mandela himself can resolve.

Cue Zimbabwe and South Africa’s lack of addressing the dictator called Mugabe and we’re now faced with 4-million exiled Zimbabweans living in South Africa fighting for their livelihood.

The events of the Xenophobic attacks the last week or so are a culmination of years of suppressed anger and frustration towards Government’s lack of providing and delivery of promises made. For 14-odd years the poor have been told that they would now finally be able to survive and provide for their families yet somehow this hasn’t changed much for them. Couple this with Government’s stance on Zimbabwe and you wonder why people have had enough?

While I can clearly see the issues I have to say none of this warrants the hatred and blood-shed we’ve seen take place since 1994 and in greater intensity over the last 7 days.

Last week my domestic worker fell victim to these attackers as she and her two daughters, all South African, were kicked out of their house, electricity cut and left in the streets until 2am in the morning. She said that two blocks up from her two people had allegedly been killed for being suspected foreigners living in the area. She also made it very clear that the attackers don’t care what nationality you are, all they care about is creating anarchy.

It is clear that what has started as an attack on foreigners is now just an attack on our freedom because these savages just want to inflict pain and fear into the hearts of all the residents of this country.

I have a very real problem with victims standing up for their rights and in turn becoming the oppressor, all the while doing as much damage as your oppressor has inflicted on you. What good is it setting a man on fire, raping women, or beating someone within an inch of his/her life? Does this actually solve anything, are you really addressing the problem?

I’m about fed up with the state of this nation as are a lot of other people. White, Black, Indian, Coloured, whatever – we all want to see a change and feel safe and secure in our country.

I’ve also had enough of this disrespect for the value of life. Senseless killing is an everyday occurrence in this country and it has to stop. As a parent I am responsible for safe-guarding my wife and two children yet how is this possible when a large chunk of our nation lacks the basic moral fibre for life?

To the ANC, Mr. Mbeki and Mr. Zuma, what are you, as leaders of this country, going to do to save this country from the turmoil we are faced with? I’m feeling hopeless at the moment and I want to feel hope once again…

ESKOM CE Jacob Maroga has urged business not to rely on the government to find solutions to power shortages likely to persist until 2013, when the utility will have significantly expanded its generation capacity. – MyADSL

Day 16 of the rolling power outages and we’re all feeling the very serious impact this is having on our lives. Funny how the Eskom CE has made this statement because while we’re all sitting in the dark – sometimes three times a day – our politicians appear to be exempt from said load shedding.

One of my closest friends lives in Killarney and during this 16 day trauma she’s had to endure the grand total of zero blackouts. Seems a little odd as Killarney is one of the hardest hit areas for load shedding but the difference with her is that she lives in the same road as Thabo Mbeki and Trevor Manuel. Another friend lives near Jacob Zuma’s residence in Forrest Town and alas they’re also unaffected by this load shedding.

Once again it’s an us and them scenario and as long as JZ and crew remain unaffected by this power crisis we’ve got no hope of Government doing anything to resolve this issue.