Ops-Normal.org

Great Karoo is bushy & green. XXX went to Sutherland with family from UK. Said it rained so much they had to beat a hasty retreat and went to Matjiesfontein and stayed at the Lord Milner, sadly looking run down and bad service & lack of staff training

Their waiter filled one red wine glass to the brim. It overflowed slightly and used his finger to wipe the glass. Aaaagh!

Ex-Ascot wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:18 pm

I don't think so. One was hot and high and stood on the brakes.

“You are sentenced to death in which case you will be hanged by the neck until you are dead. May God have mercy on you,” said Justice Tafa.

Moyo was also fined P300 for entering the country illegally, which was wholly suspended on condition that he would not commit similar offence within the next three years.

Ex-Ascot wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 26, 2022 11:53 am

It must be noted to appreciate this that when sentenced to death they don't mess around here. They take you outside and swing you from a tree. 300 BWP is about 20 quid.

“You are sentenced to death in which case you will be hanged by the neck until you are dead. May God have mercy on you,” said Justice Tafa.

Moyo was also fined P300 for entering the country illegally, which was wholly suspended on condition that he would not commit similar offence within the next three years.

Not much chance of that.

South Africa is the only country to have dismantled its own nuclear weapons programme. That is of increasing relevance in a world where the threat of nuclear conflict could be rising because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and growing world tensions.

Thirteen years ago, the United Nations General Assembly declared 29 August, as the International Day against Nuclear Tests and the South African example bears a re-examination.

Only four countries have ever surrendered their nuclear weapons, of which three — Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine — did so by returning weapons to Russia in the early 1990s. Unlike South Africa, the three countries, all former members of the Warsaw Pact, did not develop these weapons, nor did they have the capacity and know-how to maintain and control them.

The three countries gave up their nuclear weapons after they received solemn assurances in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum that the Russian Federation, United States and United Kingdom would never threaten or use military force or economic coercion against them.

Why did South Africa decide to dismantle its nuclear weapons? As part of its defence programme under apartheid, South Africa spent increasing amounts on developing nuclear weapons from the 1970s onwards. Although the threat South Africa faced was mainly unconventional, in the form of guerrilla attacks from neighbouring states and an internal insurrection, there was also a potential conventional threat. With the Russians backing the ANC and the frontline states — Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Zambia — there was a concern about a foreign-supported conventional attack.

South Africa’s nuclear weapons were viewed as a means of deterring conventional attacks launched from the frontline states but it was most unlikely that they would have been used. There was certainly an absence of large, concentrated targets and Pretoria would have faced intense international opprobrium had it crossed the nuclear threshold.

Soon after FW de Klerk became president in 1989, he realised that with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, South Africa was now in a more favourable position than ever before to undertake fundamental reforms. The reforms were helped by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola in terms of the 1988 Tripartite Agreement between Cuba, Angola and South Africa, followed by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 meant that the “rooi gevaar”, the perceived threat of the South African government at the time that the country would be taken over by communist forces, had disappeared. The implosion of the Soviet Union left a weakened state that could no longer support proxy wars on the African continent that would serve its expansionist interests.

And in the immediate post-Cold War era, large-scale nuclear disarmament was discussed as a distinct possibility.

In this new era, De Klerk realised that South Africa’s nuclear arms programme had become a liability and a potential security risk. In response to the changed geopolitical reality as well as a means to restore South Africa’s international reputation, De Klerk decided to dismantle the country’s nuclear weapons and voluntarily abandon its nuclear arms programme.

In 1991 South Africa became a State Party to the international Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and has signed and ratified the treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

Later, De Klerk would often refer to the fall of the Berlin Wall as a “window of opportunity” that had opened the way for a democratic transition. He added that he knew then that South Africa had to seize this favourable moment. In his speech on 2 February 1990, he announced the release of Nelson Mandela, the unbanning of the ANC and paved the way for negotiations and a peaceful democratic transition.

Although fundamental changes were underway, great uncertainty over South Africa’s political future remained, and hence it was certainly perceived as a risk to hand over nuclear weapons to a successor government.

In 1993, FW de Klerk shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela for their joint effort to lead South Africa on a path of a peaceful democratic transition. But De Klerk might well have been nominated for another Nobel Prize – for his decision to abandon South Africa’s nuclear arms programme. To date, no other government has followed this example.

More than three decades after the end of the Cold War and South Africa abandoning nuclear weapons, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has rekindled the fear of nuclear warfare. Russia has denied it will use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine but ambiguity over whether they will be used remains. Nuclear weapons in the Russian arsenal mean that their use is an option. The great irony is that Ukraine, a country that transferred Russian nuclear weapons back to Moscow in the early 1990s, is now in a position where it could be subject to nuclear blackmail.

Although the threat of nuclear warfare never ceased, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and US tensions with China have elevated the nuclear threat to a level not seen since the Cold War. Countries that might have considered nuclear disarmament, are now reluctant to do so in the more tense international climate.

Although South Africans can be proud of their country’s example, many countries still believe that nuclear weapons are the key to effective deterrence and that they provide them with additional bargaining power. For leaders of such countries, the following quote by FW de Klerk should provide food for thought: “We discovered with the passage of time that our real security lay in addressing the root causes of conflict in our region and within our own society — and not in the possession of weapons of mass destruction.”

Ex-Ascot wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 16, 2022 11:57 am

The ex managers of the safari camp had to give up their work permits upon leaving. Then apply for new work permits for their new jobs. This takes up to three months during which time they are not allowed to work.

We have now been waiting 9 months for a residency renewal. We have a scrap of paper which says that we can stay here until a decision is made.

Woody wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 19, 2022 7:47 am

Going to make for an interesting trip next month

https://www.news24.com/news24/southafri ... g-20220918

Woody wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:20 am

So no electricity or jetA-1

https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/ ... t-20220926

TheGreenAnger wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 29, 2022 10:09 am

Woody wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:20 am

So no electricity or jetA-1

https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/ ... t-20220926

I wonder what happened at the Chevron JetA-1 blending plant at the refinery in Milnerton (Caltex in my day)? They had quite a significant Jet A storage depot there too. I guess if they aren't properly scheduling the crude, and the buffer has run out, then we have some significant logistics cockup upstream, which is part of the new regime's modus operandi I guess.

https://www.fluor.com/projects/chevron- ... finery-epc