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From iol.co.za:
http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/mudslide-destroys-dbn-home-1.1221959
Andiswa Mjungula cleanes up the home in Rosehill, after it was badly damaged by a mudslide caused by a burst municipal pipe.Picture: Bongani Mbatha
From their website www.mjc.org.za:
Wow, what a story.
timeslive.co.za:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/commentary/2012/01/27/the-big-read-sipho-goes-to-school
This from timeslive.co.za:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2012/01/27/golden-lions-out-of-gold
Dear Friend,
This mail may not be surprising to you if you have been following current events in the international media with reference to the recent protest in Egypt. I am Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, the wife of Deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak who is seriously ill where he had retreated after giving up power on February 11th 2011. Ever since the turn out of events and prior to the protest, I have been thrown into a state of antagonism, confusion, humiliation, frustration and hopelessness by the present military leadership of the Egyptian Liberation Organization. I have even been subjected to physical and psychological torture. As a woman that is so traumatized, I have lost confidence with everybody in the country at the moment. You must have heard over the media reports and the Internet on the discovery of some fund in my husband secret bank accounts ,companies and allegations of some huge sums of money deposited by my husband in my name of which I have refused to disclose or give up to the corrupt Egyptian Government. In fact the total sum allegedly discovered by the Government so far is in the tune of about $6.5 Billion Dollars and they are not relenting on their effort to make me and my sons (Gamal & Alaa Mubarak) poor for life. As you know, the Moslem community has no regards for women, more importantly when the woman is from a Christian background, hence my desire for a foreign assistance. I have the sum of $105.5 million United States dollars (One Hundred and Five Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) with a financial firm in Africa and Europe which name I can not disclose for now for security reasons until we open up communication. I shall be grateful if you could receive these funds for safe keeping and any Investment opportunity. This arrangement will be known to you and I alone and all our correspondence should be strictly on email alone because our government has tapped all our lines and are monitoring all my moves. In view of the above, if you are willing to assist for our mutual benefits, you shall be compensated with 20% of the funds after the completion of funds to your possession. Please note this is a golden opportunity that comes once in life time and more so, if you are honest, this is one of the legacy we keep for our children. In case you don’t accept please do not let me out to the security and international media as I am giving you this information in total trust and confidence I will greatly appreciate if you accept my proposal in good faith. I am aware of the consequences of this proposal. So I ask that if you find no interest in this project that you should discard this mail. I ask that you do not be vindictive and destructive. If my offer is of no appeal to you, delete this message and forget I ever contacted you. Do not destroy my family reputation because you do not approve of my proposal.
Yours sincerely, Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak
I need to be honest, I wasn’t ecstatic when the folks at Land Rover
suggested I test a Defender 110. It’s just that I’m 28 years old and
not exactly the Defender’s target audience. Little did I know at the
time how much fun such an old girl can really be.
Lets start with the looks as this is its strongest characteristic. It
makes other wanna be retro vehicles look silly, because there is
simply nothing more retro that a Defender 110. Mine also came in a
battle ship grey colour that they borrowed from 1983. I love the
exposed door hinges, the uncovered spare wheel on the rear door, the
pop rivets all over the body and the proper off-road wheels and tyres.
Its very intimidating and the sheer bulk made we wonder if I’d be able
to drive it normally.
Once I got in however, everything felt remarkably familiar and very
comfortable. It took me back donkey years to when I was a toddler and
my grandfather only drove bakkies. This was very modern though as the
dashboard appears newer than the rest of the car, but still square and
very quirky with fog lights and window switches on the centre console.
The hooter is on the left indicator stalk and the headlight switch and
ignition hidden to the left of the steering wheel also. The handbrake
is also strangely positioned to the right of the transmission tunnel
right next to the driver’s left leg, but its hand operated. Very weird
indeed, but it certainly kept passengers entertained. You get cinema
style seating which places all the rear passengers higher than the
driver and rearward visibility isn’t great, but I quickly got used to
that also, even with the rear jump seats in use. Luckily they fold up
against the sides to give you great seating and stowage options.
Convenience features include electrically operated front windows, air
conditioning, some degree of power steering and a CD player radio unit
also from the 1990’s. Despite its design age this car easily puts
SUV’s from most other manufacturers to shame because not only does it
handle any terrain, it does so without complaining or resisting. Just
point her toward the obstacle be it sand, rocks, even water and just
drive through it. I didn’t even use the low range gearbox for the
simple trails I did, so I can only imagine this vehicles true
abilities because they certainly far outshine mine.
The 2.4L turbo diesel engine might only produce 90kw, but it’s the
360nm of torque you need to focus on in a vehicle of this nature. You
can pull trees straight out of the ground with this thing even if it
takes you a while to get to that tree because she does the 0 to 100kmh
sprint in a leisurely 15 seconds through a very relaxed six speed
manual gearbox. Fuel consumption is class leading in my opinion at
around 10 liters per 100km thanks to the efficient new engine and six
speed gearbox combination. You might think it’s a lot, but you then
clearly haven’t seen the size of this beast.
Its quirky, slow and difficult to park, so much so that I needed to
reverse park most of the time. The turning circle is massive and she
can be cumbersome to maneuver in parking lots, but everyone always
waited for me and gave me gaps because I looked quite the spectacle
behind the massive steering wheel nervously checking my mirrors all
the time. Especially older white men and woman stared at the small
coloured guy in amazement as I’m sure my mohawk, bright T-Shirts and
flip flops didnt quite meet their pre-conceived idea of the Defender
driver.
I was honestly sad when I had to give her back because she made me
feel like a kid again. A kid with a strange new toy which at roughly
R420 000 is an absolute bargain compared to its only real world rival
the Mercedes Benz G-Class at almost R800 000 for the entry level
G300CDI model.
I cant wait for another call from the friendly people over at Land Rover.
Bobby
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