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Last Update: January 28, 2002 |
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Wine flows, spirits rise as SA & EU close deal South Africa and the European Union on Monday signed a long-awaited deal on wine and spirits that will bring more duty-free South African wine to the country's biggest export market. The agreement, signed at the Nederberg Wine Estate in Paarl, also ensures the phasing out of the use by South African producers of the names port, sherry, grappa and ouzo. The European Commission ambassador to South Africa, Michael Lake, said the agreement ended years of tough negotiations. "This is a milestone in our relationship between the EU and South Africa and the consolidation of what we have built up in the free trade agreement." The deal on wine and spirits follows the conclusion of the Trade Development and Co-operation Agreement that came into effect in January 2000. Trade and Industry director-general Alistair Ruiters - who signed along with his Agriculture counterpart Bongiwe Njobe and EU Agricultural director-general Silvio Rodriguez - said the deal was good for South Africa and its wine industry. "Today we are celebrating a victory... It is not just about wine, but has greater significance," Ruiters said. "It cements the process of this economy undergoing massive change." The agreement increases the free duty quota of local wine to the EU from 32-million litres to 42-million litres. The EU would also make available 15-million euros (about R150-million) for the restructuring of the South African wine industry. The funds will be distributed according to a programme to be developed by the South African government. A joint committee of South African and EU officials will be set up to sign agreements on trademarks that are identical or similar to geographical indications. Ruiters said the deal put money back into the pockets of South African wine producers. The increase of 10-million litres to be allowed duty-free into the EU translated into more than R50-million for local producers, he said. Currently South Africa exports 123-million litres of wine into the 15-nation EU, which accounts for 78 percent of its total wine export. In 2000 South Africa exported wine valued at R1,35-billion to the EU. Lake said, in total exports, South Africa had now overtaken Singapore and Malaysia to become Europe's 15th biggest trading partner. Despite a slowing world economy South Africa's total exports to the EU rose by 21 percent in the first 10 months of 2001 and by 35 percent in 2000. South Africa's trade surplus grew to R25-billion in the first 10 months of last year. "This agreement opens new markets and will further enhance South Africa's wine industry," Lake said. Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ]  Kytie Koekblik ColumnKytie Koekblik Washington D.C. - Kyk, ek het ‘n heilige vrees vir Suid-Afrikaanse tandartse en ek moes myself elke twee tot drie jaar dwing om tandarts toe te gaan, ten spyte van daai kaartjies wat jou elke ses maande daaraan herinner dat dit tyd is vir jou check-up. Ek was nog altyd bang vir ‘n tandarts maar ek is banger vir ‘n Amerikaanse tandarts as vir die duiwel. Ek is oortuig daarvan dat American Dentists daarop uit is soos alle service industriee in die VSA om jou in te loop. Its all about the money, honey. Een goeie weeksoggend kom die Big Cheese by die kantoor ingestap. “I swallowed my tooth last night.” Nou die Big Cheese is banger vir die tandarts as ek. Vir die eerste besef ek, die Big Cheese is eintlik ‘n Big Baba. Ons besluit toe om saam tandarts toe te gaan. Die Big Cheese dokter nou al self sy een tand vir ‘n kort jaar die filling is los so die Big Cheese haal dit in en uit, soos ‘n valstand. Daarop gee die Big Cheese my die opdrag vir die dag: “Spoor my tandarts van 13 jaar terug op in Suid-Afrika want ek gaan ernstige dental work benodig en dit regverdig ‘n “Dental Trip” huis toe want dit gaan vir my baie geld spaar". Nie ek of die Big Cheese het dental insurance nie wat vir ‘n ding is dental insurance in elk geval????? Nie ek of die Big Cheese gaan geld wat ons op trips na Cuba of Timbaktu kan spandeer, in ‘n Amerikaanse tandarts se vet beursie instuur nie. So ek spring toe op die wereldwye web om ene Dr Pieter Mussmann op te spoor wat destyds in Denta House in Castle straat, Kaapstad, gepraktiseer het. Dr Mussmann is nie in cyberspace te vinde nie. Bloot toevallig praat ek met ‘n mede-joernalis oor my opdrag om die missing dentist op te spoor wat die Baas se missing tooth gaan herstel. “Dr Mussmann,” se ek. “Waar op die aarde gaan ek hom opspoor?” En omdat die wereld toe wel ‘n kleine plekkie is, is ene Dr Mussmann toevallig die joernalis se tandarts wat van Denta House af na Durbanville getrek het… In die meantime bel die Big Cheese rond om vir ons die cheapste local tandarts te vind wat in ons monde kan rondkrap om die skade van jare te bepaal. Die Big Cheese moet immers aan dieAlpha Female verduidelik waarom hy nou skielik ‘n Dental Trip na sy moederland gaan onderneem. Ons benodig dus ‘n “Dental Consultation.” Nou waar begin ‘n mens om ‘n tandarts op te spoor in die Capital City van die wereld? Die Big Cheese bel toe 1-800-dial-a-dentist. Dial ‘n dentist bepaal wie jou beste tandarts gaan wees deur ‘n tandarts aan te beveel in jou “closest geographical proximity.” Toe die hulpvaardige telemarketer aan die anderkant van die foonlyn haar verkoopsrympie launch, toe skud ek soos ek lag. Volgens haar kan jy immers kies tussen: ‘n Selection of movies; ‘n gemaklike leunstoel; headphones en ‘n CD player.’n Trip na die dentist is soos besoek aan die movies. In Amerika kry jy obviously - dental luxury. Terwyl die man in jou mond rond krap hoef jy nie jou oe toe te knyp en in angs en spanning te sit en wonder of jy te min geborsel het nie. Jy kyk na die nuuste feature film. ‘n Escapist dental culture. “Vra vir daai dentist hoeveel dit kos om gate te stop?” vra ek vir die Big Cheese. Die Big Cheese reports back: “We’ll need a consultation to be able to say; there’s apparently five surfaces on your tooth en dit hang af hoe diep die gat is. ” Wat het van die dae geword toe ek by Dr Vermeulen op die hoekstraat in Kuilsrivier kon instap en die tandarts sou self nie sy assistant nie my X-strale neem en die skade bepaal? Wat het van die dae geword toe ek net een afspraak nodig gehad het waarin ek sommer geconsult, gestop, skoongemaak en gefix is sodat ek by die tandarts kon uitloop met ‘n dooie mond, ‘n geswelde tong, skoon tande en geen gaatjies nie!!! Na ‘n lang gesukkel spoor die Big Cheese toe vir ons ‘n tandarts op sy buurman…wat vir ons ‘n netjiese afslag gee en ten minste ken die Big Cheese darem die man. So laasweek breek die D-dag toe aan. THE VISIT TO THE AMERICAN DENTIST. Die Big Cheese het eerste gegaan en kom terug rapporteer: Die higienis is soos ‘n kleremaakster, sy meet al jou “gum positions” met ‘n liniaal en sy meet die afstand tussen bone and flesh. En sy skryf die heeltyd mini-verslae oor elke tand. “My dentists in South Africa never wrote nothing, all we talked about was fishing.” Se die Big Cheese. Nou ja toe. Die Higienis vertel aan die Big Cheese: Jou gums is toe eintlik meer belangrik as jou tande; jy borsel te hard en flos te min en die skade is groot. So nou is ons besig om die Big Cheese se Dental Trip na Suid-Afrika te organiseer. Die Big Cheese reken dit gaan ‘n inspuiting wees vir die SA Economy as elke SA ekspat ‘n dental trippie onderneem na die moederland waar jy jou moedertande gewissel het. Ons skryf toe ‘n e-mail aan ene Dr Mussmann van Durbanville. Hier is die unedited version: Anyway, the reason for writing is that I have been abroad for a number of years and have been bad about having regular visits to the dentist. I am now 45 which means that most of my old silver fillings, esp. in my molars and premolars are old, some are cracking, 2 are broken or have parts missing. They probably need to be replaced with more modern materials and perhaps caps or crowns. A premolar on my right bottom side cracked and about a quarter broke off just above the gum line (not much left before the root is exposed) and I would guess that a crown or large 3 sided filling is required. this one is much more urgent. Enigiets wat in die Baas se mond wegraak, is in daai groot blackhole in sy mond. Ek wag toe in spanning vir my oomblik om aan te breek. Het ek ook ‘n besoek aan die goeie kleindorpse tandarts op die hoek nodig????? Die laaste keer wat Kytie Koekblik by ‘n tandarts was, het ek myself belowe ek gaan gereeld flos… Ongelukkig het ek altyd goeie intensies en min dissipline. Ek het wel geflos soms minder as meer soms een keer ‘n maand omdat ek VERGEET om te flos, en soms twee tot drie maal ‘n week as ek sien hoe die koffie wat ek drink my tande vlek. “Ek is Kytie. I work for the Big Cheese and I’m terrified of dentists,” se ek vir die ontvangsdame Die steriele wagkamer vol plakkate met BEFORE en AFTER tande het erg dreigend gelyk. “Your boss is a chicken,” se die ontvangsdame. “You have another one,” se ek en my tande klappertand letterlik van die senuwees. So die eerste ding wat die higienis of course vir my se is: Lyk nie te sleg nie, maar jy beter flos… Nou kyk, geen tandarts het dit al ooit reggekry om my te laat flos in die 23 jaar van my lewe nie. En daar verander die Amerikaanse tandarts toe sowaar my hele uitkyk op die lewe. Sien jou tande is directly connected aan jou gums en jou gums kan bepaal of jy ‘n stroke kry of nie! So, Kytie is nou baie into mond higiene. Ek het nou al vir een hele week nog net een keer geskip en ek flos TWEE MAAL ‘n dag… Die rede: Die goodies wat ek verniet by die tandarts gekry het. Hulle het vir my die coolste tandeborsel gegee wat borsel soos ‘n sagte droom plus sensitivity toothpaste; plus hulle het die aaklige koffiestains agter my onderste twee voortande afgehaal; plus hulle het vir my hierdie cool cinnamon mondspoel gegee; plus mint dental floss wat saggies tussen my tande in glip. Toe kry ek boonop hierdie uiters cool battery-aangedrewe tandeborsel teen ‘n afslag vir net $6. Ek kon nie help om te glimlag toe ek uit stap met my goodie-bag nie. EN boonop weet ek toe my glimlag gaan witter en skoner wees…Die Amerikaanse dentist het vir my hierdie geheim vertel om witter tande te he: Jy borsel met koeksoda… O ja, ek kon met trots aan die nuwe Boyfriend se, Actually, to my surprise, I didn’t have any cavities EN (on)gelukkig het ek nie ‘n Dental Trip na Suid-Afrika nodig nie… So die boyfriend se: Let me see your teeth. En daar ontdek ek en die Boyfriend toe ook ‘n nuwe passie in Dental Health. Toevallig het die Boyfriend ‘n paar jaar terug ‘n artikel ontdek wat sy hele approach to dental health verander het. Hy is ‘n gereelde flosser met wit tande en hy het my ook van al hierdie nuwe cool goed vertel wat ‘n mens by die Dental Section in die Safeway of Giant of CVS kan koop. Daar is onder andere die Tongue Scraper; daar is ook hierdie magical papiertjies wat ‘n mens op jou tong sit en dan begin jou mond te gloei en jy het ‘n vars asem. O maar dit was so lekker om nou die dag te gaan shopping doen, ek stap toe daar uit met Cinnamon spicy fluoride toothpaste en allerhande goed wat Amerika aan my verkoop het… So I totally bought into it: Dental Consumer Culture. En ek glimlag groot en witter vir die wereld…. Kytie K. Kytie Koekblik would like you to respond to her tongue-in-cheek running commentary on suburban life in America in this editorial. Fresh off the boat, she is ready to explore and experiment with American bath plugs and to drive on the other side of the road. You can contact her here. © RSA-Overseas & Matheson Communications [ Top ] 'We threw Tshepo's body into the dam' Two Pietersburg rugby club members admitted in the Pretoria High Court on Monday to having thrown the body of a Northern Province teenager into a dam near Marble Hall last year. Riaan Botha and Kobus Joubert, however, denied any involvement in the killing of 17-year-old Tshepo Matloha near Dendron in March last year. They and three other Noordelikes rugby club members - Ben Korff, Francois Velloen, and Corne Kloppers - are accused of murdering Matloha, apparently after finding him hunting illegally on Botha's mother's farm. The State alleges that Matloha's body was thrown into the Flag Boshielo dam, about 200km away. Charges against four other Noordelikes rugby club members - Johan van Ravenstein, Rudolph Adendorff, Willem Boshoff, and Jaco Hartslief - were withdrawn when the case resumed on Monday morning. The accused were also charged with the attempted murder of Alex and Melford Motlokwana, who were apparently hunting with Matloha. A third charge, of malicious damage to property, relates to the killing of five dogs. The men are also accused of defeating the ends of justice by dumping Matloha's body in the dam. All five of the accused pleaded not guilty on Monday. Bert Bam, Botha's advocate, said his client acknowledged that he had thrown Matloha's body into the Flag Boshielo dam. This had been an "irrational and rash" act, Bam said. Botha also admitted to killing the five dogs by shooting them, but contended that he had been acting within the law. Kobus Strydom, for Joubert, said his client admitted to helping Botha to throw Matloha's body into the dam. The trial continues. Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ] SAA unmoved by Texan's 'blackmail' website A Texan called Vernon E Six junior has become embroiled in a row with South African Airways over bad service and has set up a website called neverfly.saa.com where he says anyone who flies with the airline would be "a flipping idiot". SAA said on Sunday it was taking legal action against Six as a result of defamatory remarks made on the website and alleged extortion. The airline claims Six had demanded $20 000 (R220 000) as a "settlement" fee to close his website. SAA spokesperson Rich Mkondo said the airline had briefed its attorneys on Friday. They would serve papers on Six on Monday. On the website, peppered with exclamation marks and spelling mistakes, Six lists the problems he had when flying SAA from London to Cape Town in November to spend his honeymoon in South Africa. Six said on his flight to Cape Town the lavatory floor had flooded and wet his socks. The crew "didn't even offer to help me disinfect my foot!" Six wrote. He says the air conditioner had not worked, the airline had initially assigned seats to him and his wife in different rows and the seat in front of his wife "reclined completely in her lap". On the return journey, the television was jumpy, the lavatory stopped working and the crew had to use bottled water to flush it. This meant there was no water for tea or coffee. "I would rather swim the ocean myself than to endure there (sic) level of completely piss-poor service and maintenance of there (sic) planes!" Six wrote. Mkondo said SAA's customer relations department had contacted Six after they had been told of the website and had investigated his complaints. He said it was true that the lavatories had been out of order, that bottled water had to be used to flush them and, as a result, there had been no water for tea and coffee. Mkondo says the other complaints were untrue. "After telling the airline he was satisfied with the the way his concerns had been addressed, Six then demanded compensation," Mkondo said. He said SAA would not "succumb to blackmail". Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ]  Nel's KitchenRagel Nel Ragel Nel Washington D.C. - Last week I was recovering from my dental (mental?) medical experimentation, which gave me an excuse to watch a lot of the often-mindless fodder on offer on American television. To be fair, there is no cable television in the house (for the precise purpose of discouraging me from watching any of the mindless fodder in the first place.), so I have exactly six channels to choose from. It was a weekend night and I was convinced that I wouldn’t find anything even remotely worth watching. So I was aimlessly meandering between channels, when the following image suddenly caught my eye. A teenage girl with an astonishingly teased up ‘do (known by people in the hairdressing industry as Big Hair) and dressed in an enormous powder blue creation with puffed-up sleeves was stretched out on a bed. (Actually, due to the puffiness of the outfit, it was more as if she was hovering a few centimetres above the bed). Next to her was a plastic tiara sparkling with glitter and fake jewels. The girl was clutching the tiara with one hand using her free hand to pound the bed. "I can’t believe I’ve lost!" she wailed over and over. Well, of course I was highly amused and already hooked, and very relieved to have stumbled across a movie. And a comedy nonetheless! It was just what the dentist had ordered to make me feel better. Alas… it wasn’t a movie. And sadly, it wasn’t a comedy either. It was genuine depiction of surreal life, I soon discovered. My "movie" was a documentary about the obsessively competitive world of beauty pageants in the United States. And I don’t even mean pageants like the Miss USA or Miss Universe. The documentary featured little girls with hairstyles taller than themselves, and sprayed and combed so tightly it pulled their eyes into narrow little slits. Oh, and then those cream-puff outfits! Imagine eighties fashion at its most shoulder-padded and then add a few more bows and frills. The amount of makeup piled onto their little faces would make any prostitute (or clown) look fresh-faced. Even from a distance you could see how you’d be able to drag your finger across their faces and leave tracks in the caked on foundation. "I hate wearing makeup," a preteen said while deftly applying thick and dark false eyelashes onto her bright blue eyelids. "But you gotta do what you gotta do to win." (Apparently learning correct English grammar isn’t required to secure victory.) "Colour in your upper lip and remember to make it bigger!" Her mother interrupted. At the camera she said, almost apologetically. "The upper lip disappear when they smile on stage, so they have to make it bigger." The mothers, it appeared soon after, are far more obsessed and competitive than their daughters. A particularly large woman, mother to a scrawny little girl wearing glasses, bobbed up and down, wildly swinging her arms and tipping an imaginary hat. This exercise was particularly strenuous and soon she was sweating profusely and breathing quite hard. But she pressed on like a determined athlete. "See…" she huffed at the little girl who was standing with droopy shoulders a few feet away, safely out of harm’s way. "You have to move like THIS." With that the mother gave another ambitious turn and… then the television screen went blank for a few seconds. "Do you like to take part in these pageants?" a female voice – the filmmaker, one imagines – asked the girl in a rare moment when her mother wasn’t patrolling nearby. "Not really," the little girl managed softly after a long moment’s hesitation. "But," she recovered quickly when her well-rehearsed training kicked into place again. "It’s good for my confidence." She could be quite pretty without makeup. But with all the paint in place on her narrow little face, and in the ridiculous outfit with the top hat (the one she’s supposed to tip when she’s moving around on stage.), she looked like a badly drawn caricature. The camera panned in on another girl. She was older – possibly sixteen – but here, apart from the obvious physical differences in their bodies, height and hair colour, everyone age six to sixteen looks alike. This girl was wearing a crown. Not a tiara. A CROWN. All fake and plastic, but it’s obvious that bigger is better and more is definitely more important in THIS world. "I’m surrendering the title tonight." She said, nearly in tears. "Someone else will be in the spotlight, and then I’ll be nothing again." "That’s true," her mother chimed in, but then soothed. "We’ll find you another pageant though." "She has soooo many beauty pageant trophies at home!" her mother boasted into the camera a bit later. "And apart from this title, she is also the first princess in the reigning Miss South Carolina World." Who would have known that you only have to conquer the state of South Carolina to have conquered the whole wide world? Soon it was time for the pageant. They showed the girls doing their prancing (because it’s nothing like a normal walk or even a model’s catwalk stride.) during the first round. The one with the top hat did her best to keep up with her mother’s choreography, but she too lost her balance during the spin and fled the stage in tears. The camera followed just in time to see her mother screaming at her: "How COULD you mess this up! How COULD you?" Then it was time for eveningwear. A mother was strapping her daughter into place in a mile-wide dress in a shade of Georgia peach. "This gown was $2,500." She drawled with a heavy southern accent and a little sigh. "The last one was only $2,000, which means that we’ve upgraded by $500." After doing up a few hundred more buttons and hooks in the back of the gown (At that price not made by any famous designers, it has to be said.), she reached a conclusion about her daughter. "I guess she just has better taste now." "Last time the judges really ripped me apart," an African American girl – and the only one of colour in the pageant – grimaced in pain while a hairdresser was pinning clashing brown hair extensions into her black hair. "She bought these extensions." The hairdresser said. "So if anyone asks her, she can honestly say that it’s her own." Following the bathing suit category was the talent show (which, unfortunately, didn’t get nearly enough airtime) and then, with great pomp and circumstance the winner of the Miss Catfish Stomp 2002 was announced. It was, shockingly, the blonde with the biggest hair. As she heard her name read out in front of the whole wide world (all fifty people gathered in that little school hall.), both she and her mother collapsed tearfully in each other’s arms, with the losers bursting into tears behind them. (Can’t imagine that any of those were happy tears.) The previous winner was a bit reluctant to give up the crown to her sobbing successor – which also led to a lot of tearful contributions from her side – but when she finally let go, she couldn’t resist giving the new queen a bit of tiara-wearing know-how and, quite frankly, advice that women all around can benefit from: "Whenever you wear a crown, imagine walking with a book on your head, but tilt it more towards the back so that you don’t EVER mess up your hair." © RSA-Overseas [ Top ] Man arrested for raping two young sisters A 25-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly raping two sisters, aged 4 and 11, at a Florida hotel on the West Rand. West Rand police Captain Paula Nothnagel said the incident took place on Saturday in the staff quarters of the Maraisburg Hotel, where the mother works. Nothnagel said the suspect was a friend of the girls' mother and often visited the family to watch television. "The mother left the children in the room and went to the shop to buy something," she said. While the mother was away, the suspect arrived at the house. On realising that the mother was not in, "the suspect locked the door and allegedly raped both girls". As soon as he was finished, he ran away, and a neighbour saw him fleeing. "A few minutes later the neighbour saw the kids crying and she asked them what the problem was, to which the girls told her they had been raped by their mother's friend," said Nothnagel. The neighbour went to find the mother, she said, and both went to the suspect's house. Police were called and the man was arrested. He was expected to appear in the Roodepoort magistrate's court on Monday. Nothnagel said the girls were taken to hospital and were in a stable conditions. In a separate incident, a 23-year-old woman was raped at the premises of the Jesus Alive Ministries in Honeydew, also on the West Rand, early on Sunday. Nothnagel said the woman was sleeping in her room when she saw a man standing next to her bed. The man had gained entry by climbing through a window. After raping the woman, the man took R100 and a bank card from her. "Although she could not describe her attacker (because it was dark in the room), she said his voice sounded familiar," Nothnagel added. Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ] |
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