News from South Africa

I see the bureaucracy in South Africa hasn't improved any since I left that country.

South Africans are being urged to confirm whether they are officially alive, as the beleaguered home affairs department attempts to do away with "fraudulent deaths", government said Tuesday.

"We really call upon citizens to confirm your alive status," local government minister Richard Baloyi told a press conference.

A special call centre has been set up for South Africans to check if they have been wrongly declared dead -- an increasingly common problem with identity theft by criminals trying to benefit from life insurance, he said.

Baloyi also urged citizens to check if they legally married, as criminals are also engaging in identity theft to arrange fake marriages for migrants seeking citizenship.

"You may find out you are married more than once," he said.

South Africa's home affairs department has been crippled by corruption and inefficiency.

In 2005 a young man won the sympathy of many South Africans when he held a home affairs official hostage, with a fake gun, demanding his identity document after a two-year wait for the ID book which is vital in every aspect of daily life.

Concerns that South African passports could be easily obtained by bribing officials recently led Britain to impose a visa requirement on its former colony.

The inefficiency is absolutely infuriating. To obtain a new passport through South Africa's US embassy takes a minimum of six months! How that country's government can function at all, given such catastrophic bungling in its core departments, is a mystery.

In sadder news, Table Mountain in Cape Town has had another of its periodic wildfires.

Seven people were injured and 60 residents forced to leave their homes in a dramatic night time blaze that engulfed Cape Town's world-famous Table Mountain last night.




Homeowners were told to pack up and leave in parts of the city as the huge fire at one stage threatened the University of Cape Town campus.

It is thought the blaze started at the famous Rhodes Memorial at around 8pm last night.




High winds hindered the firefighters’ efforts as flames from the massive blaze sent choking smoke on to parts of the city.

Nearly 150 firemen in 30 engines assisted by specialist helicopters tackled the blaze - which at its peak lit up South Africa’s second city.

More pictures at the link. I grew up in the shadow of Table Mountain, and know the affected areas very well. My sympathies to those involved.

Peter