We said that it was going to be a good year and it’s got off to a cracker of a start. After months of deliberation, the new Durban airport has at last been given an official name. It will, from this moment forward, be known as King Shaka International Airport. Mpume Mbatha of the Geographical Names Council confirmed this last Thursday, subject to approval by the Minister of Arts and Culture, Lulu Xingwana. Hopefully Lulu will manage to find some time in her very busy schedule to attend to this before the first flights touch down in May. It’s also been a good start to the year for former Clapton band member, Ginger Baker. He currently lives in Tulbagh, in the Cape, having been forced out of homes in England, Nigeria, Italy, and the United States for various offenses, including tax evasion. He is what some might call a colourful character.
The former rocker, who played drums for the band Cream with Eric Clapton in the 1960s, has won a battle with banking giant FNB over cash allegedly siphoned from his account by Lindiwe Noko. The sprightly seventy year old hired her as a part-time personal secretary to manage his affairs while she was working at FNB. The lovely Lindiwe allegedly managed his affairs by siphoning R460 000 out of his bank account while he wasn’t looking. In a settlement made an order of the court, the bank agreed to pay R43 000, plus interest, back to Baker, because Noko had manipulated the settings on Baker's account, enabling her to make certain withdrawals without an SMS being sent to notify him of the transaction.
Baker apparently refused to meet the bank's request that he sign a confidentiality agreement about the settlement because that’s just not rock n roll! In the past few days, soccer supremo, Danny Jordaan has come out guns blazing over the heavily inflated prices being touted by accommodation and service providers during the period of the soccer world cup this year. The world is slowly emerging from the worst recession in decades and many potential soccer tourists are opting to stay at home and watch the matches on TV rather than being stung with the inflated prices being quoted at present. His point is valid. He believes that with reasonable pricing and good service, soccer fans would return to the country as regular tourists when the world cup is over.
But if we overcook the golden goose, there’ll be slim pickings. It’s a point to consider and hopefully good sense will prevail because if the event works well, we are all going to win in some way. Jordaan is also very concerned about poor ticket sales locally. Fewer than 100,000 tickets have been sold to fans of the six African countries competing. More than a million have been sold or requested worldwide, but sales of tickets to watch South Africa’s Bafana Bafana, in action have been particularly poor and lag far behind previous World Cup hosts.
If the trend continues, this will be the first time in World Cup history that the host nation doesn’t top the ticket sales list. Bafana are not even in the top ten. More South Africans are supporting England that Bafana. It’s hardly surprising considering the home side’s poor performance of late. While our rugby and cricket stars shine bright in the constellation of international sport, Bafana Bafana is, by comparison, a black hole. Tons of money goes in and… nothing. Still, the World Cup is a reason to get excited so we’ll be keeping an eye on developments ahead of the event along with our regular mix of fun and entertainment each week. Welcome to this week’s edition of Life & Style also available online at www.lifestyleads.co.za.
