THE CBD CITY SPACES

DURBAN TRANSPORT

“MZANSI” (SOUTH AFRICA) uniqueness of transport.

Durban Transport (DT): (Mr A. Mkhize) a daily transport user from a township called KwaMashu. It was a Friday around twelve when I went to town from “res” to buy some things I needed, we in a queue to a teller when we started a conversation about the queue being slowly. Out of the blue a guy behind me loudly said everything seems to be slow in Durban these days even the transport, he added on by saying that the municipality has no respect for them “how can they do such things, we are the ones who pay them I can’t understand how this happened cause we don’t buy the tickets on credit” meaning what their are currently experiencing. That is when I and Andile started talking about the Durban transport who was in front of me, when he said how disappointed he was after it was no longer available for him to use as a daily user.

Andile who works as a salesman in a furniture shop around Durban, who has been working there for 4 years has experienced this problem since he uses the transport. He’s complaints are no different from others.Andile uses both buses and taxis but the only problem is that he has no choice but to use a taxi when going for work because the only transport available in the morning are taxis around half five o’clock, bus stops are far from where he lives. He stated that the only advantage of using a bus is that the transport fee is quit reasonable apart from that most Durban buses are not comfortable and are totally unfriendly, time management has also been an issue.

Ever since he’s been using the same taxi at the same time almost everyday he meets the same people it was like a staff to them. Buses are not as available as before they have been limited to certain areas for instance in townships like KwaMashu where he lives. He claims that there are around ten buses in the whole area whereas before buses being used where about hundred and thus some people are now considering alternative transport but for him it has not been a problem since they negotiated with the driver they used every morning to make it official for him to pick them up.

Most people are considering taxis, trains etc, people are now experiencing problems since there are so many people resorting to using taxis. For some people the time management is affecting their social life’s getting from home to work and from work to home has become a frustrating encounter. Since there are long queues taxi drivers end up overloading the taxis, this affects the public in the sense that most of them tend to become aggressive like people swearing at each other. “Overloading causes accidents and increases the death rate in a short period of time” he exclaimed in a frustrated tone.

Apart from the issues mentioned above this has actually contributing to the informal business sector of taxi owners and also increasing their chances of owning more taxis. Since the taxi owners will be buying new taxis which are quantums and are the most comfortable public transport available currently this surely will benefit the daily users.

End of the semester NO!!!

The News media and the Internet society

The end of the course's semester,no!! is just the beginning of the news media and the Internet society. To me after all how am i going to stay away from what i have been introduced to by the course. There are so many things i have leaned through the semester that i was total unconscious of; from the critical cognition of the press to the indigenous people of "Umzansi"(South Africa) to mention a few. the course gave me a privilege to expose my self to the realities of South Africa my country, i can believe i was so certain that i knew Mzansi but to my surprise most the things i thouht i knew were what the media wanted me to know about, the the truth at most times.

There were some research or rather tusk allocated to us (students) to go and find out about what is happening around Mzansi almost every week to submit to our news portal or right about the experiences of going through all of it on our blogs (this blog), as part of marks to pass. Personal This was one experience i will never forget. The themes or subjects we discussed during the period were what i used to call "obvious terms" but there was more into them in terms of meaning. One of the subtopics i did within my group were; transport (ways to get around the city), expectations of the world cup 2010 (South Africa) and the diverse and cultural activities of Mzansi ( FOOD).[here are the links(URL):http://internetstudies.ukzn.ac.za/inst102news/node118,http://internetstudies.ukzn.ac.za/inst102news/node216 and http://internetstudies.ukzn.ac.za/inst102news/node274 to them.

social ineqaulity

Racial segregation has not been the only issue people have come across in Durban; a tendency of people dividing themselves according to culture has become dominant. Zulu people in particular have at some stage made me feel inferior because I speak a different language. To them there is no other black local language that can be compared to Zulu therefore making all other languages inferior to them, but not everyone has that mindset.
Well every place has its own positive and negative aspects. Experiences such as being made to feel inferior because of the language you speak .The majority are quit friendly people like they say “it takes a good person to know a good person. Not so long ago I made friends with a person I attend a lecture with who is very aggressive friendless (doesn’t believe in having friends) as he has always said in his arguments.

Another experience I had was when I went for a shopping in town (Durban) from residence to by certain things. I went passing through a bunch of street traders all selling the same thing fruits apples, oranges, pears etc. they were pointing fingers at of the vendor accusing him of talking all the customers saying “ usebenzisa umutsi lo” meaning he’s using traditional medicine to take the customers. What was fascinating is that they had most of their fruits spoiled (partly rotten) and they were not clean. Because he was originally from another country they were forcing him to cease selling or to find an alternative site calling him a “likwerekwere” meaning foreigner.

My point is that social inequality exist within Durban with the previous experience I had, it’s a fact. With these I can say it’s a reflection of South Africa as whole. It was no first time I had of such issues recently early this year there were reports about xenophobia near Johannesburg in a township called Alexandra- were people were attracted because they were foreigners (accused of stilling jobs for South Africans).

Oral and literate societies

Literacy I’ve once thought about it, how the world has altered from what it was to what it is contemporary. Certainly almost everyone has such thoughts now and then in their mind but what has come to my significant vitality, the consciousness of the literacy how is has become the ultimate way of communication across the globe as hole especially when it comes to formality (business, states) etc. this happened after I attendant a lecture. The lecturer had a presentation with the title “technology and historical change” from the course internet studies in University of KwaZulu Natal.

Centuries ago or as early as human existence on earth according to history or should I say scientists have declared that the first humans to live were communicating orally, and as time went they developed certain skills to communicate in a different way. They altered to communicate in writing; literacy was then born but not every society changed. The advantages of being within a society that is “illiterate” or “pre literate” as mentioned in the lecture meaning society without writing you’ll have high ability of memorizing. Plato a Greece philosopher was not happy with the development of writing; he felt that you’ll lose the ability to remember. True; imagine you are in an environment where you have to memorize anything anyone says to you that will definitely improve your memory to its ultimate best. Another advantage to this that illiterate societies they won’t have any “outsiders” informed about their lives, how they live in case they have enemies (war) etc.

However contemporary literacy has become one of the most things we use in our everyday life especially for those in the informal sector. Basically literacy forms the base of the modern society we live in today. The advantages of being in certain societies is that everything is written down thus in future it will be used by the upcoming generation to develop new notions from those previously developed. The public benefit from this being informed about what is going in their lives within their environment e.g. the media.

DIGNITY

Human dignity that is one of those words having different meanings to different people around the world, depending were you from. South Africa is one the world countries with a diverse number of people inheriting in it. Thus have a diverse cultures and different ways in which people defines certain words. As a patriotic South African and within the culture I come from, “human dignity” is something that a person grow up maintaining until their ultimate or current age. This is attained in different ways.

Human dignity as I mentioned is accomplished in variety several ways. From were I come from you will have to respect every person you meet regardless of their age, gender, race or culture hence you will gain their respect in return. In so doing you’ll automatically have a sense of pride and it also boost your self- esteem. In doing so and not disrespecting other people in anyway, not have a mistake in these conditions of gaining dignity, then you have “human dignity” what we call in my vernacular Swazi “isithunzi”. Human dignity is determined by the environment (nature), culture you’re within.

The South African constitutional law protecting the rights of the indigenous people I think it is the best thing in shielding human dignity. In fact to make an example I once so a stand up comedy by one of our South African comedian making a joke about someone like Nelson Mandela, I couldn’t believe someone will do such a thing, after the freedom fighter having so much respect for everyone in this world. That is one example of violated human dignity. In this way even those who don’t care of being disrespected will have to respect those who do want to or deserve to be respected thus dignity will be protected, if the government restrict such things to people then it will avoid the violation of inherent human dignity.