limpopo lulz

politicians on this side are just full of the lulz today.

there was a big demonstration in durban about the upcoming trial of jacob zuma, which led to great big fights with the police, and the attendant running street battles. lovely. there were also threats by some very senior people in the anc in kwa-zulu natal [this includes durban] that there would be serious civil unrest if he cannot be the next president due to these pesky corruption charges hanging over his head.

lovely.

also, they still haven't figured out the talks in zimbabwe yet. as a result of this, mugabe has said he's going to form a cabinet unilaterally. tsvangirai has said "better no deal than a crap deal".

in serious lulz news, zimbabwe de facto dollarized today. this wouldn't be particularly lulz-worthy except not six weeks ago, gideon gono, the head of the reserve bank of zimbabwe, said that "dollarisation is not a position we have taken. we are not in that situation yet. report all such persons to the nearest police station." he said that on the day they announced they were going to lop off 10 zeros from the currency. 2 of those zeros are already back. in six weeks. gotta love hyperinflation.

the hyperinflation is a reason why i'm going to namibia next week and not zimbabwe. it would be nice to be able to use the ATM, you know?

in gideon's announcement of de facto dollarisation, he said that it was, in part, so that "enhance our preparations for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa." now, this is not without precedent; zimbabwe and south africa co-hosted the cricket world cup in 2003.

am so glad i'm going to namibia. it means i need to set things up all over again, but at least i can get myself sorted more easily. and can travel much, much lighter than i would otherwise have to.

i've got the popcorn going for both sides of the limpopo, that's for sure.