SA Rocks

Eita my fellow South Africans,

Yes, it is that time. The London Olympics have officially begun and are already on day 6. There is a buzz around the country and where ever one looks, you can see Olympic fever is here. Even Google has the fever, start typing in basically anything and it will drop down with the famous ‘did you mean’ and have a suggestion related to the Olympics. Obviously, with our very own Cameron Van Der Burgh smashing the  world record in the men’s 100m breaststroke final on Sunday has really bumped up the ‘gees’ of our nation.

The race itself was epic, although quite quick (58.46 seconds). It had myself and the people I was watching with on the edges of our seats.

The thing that struck me about Cameron though is that he is a real local boytjie. He was born in SA, lives in SA and studies here too. A real home grown dude – fantastic to hear. Well done on the WR and the Gold Cam, you have made us all very proud.

It looks like the pride of all South Africans will be increased exponentially by the winning of yet another gold medal by Chad le Clos. Another truly local young gun, was competing against a number of well accomplished swimmers in the men’s 200m butterfly final and when watching the race, on the last turn it appeared he would have to settle for bronze. However, the last lap saw him dig deep and take first place by just over half a second. Nail biting stuff.

South Africa now sits 10th in the rankings with 2 golds, 6 days in and 7 to go. Lets make sure we get behind the people that have been chosen to represent us in the Olympics and show our support. Click here for a link which will fill you in on all of our sporting folk, the details of their events and all you need to know about them.

Until next time,

Shap shap!

Dave

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Ladies and gents of sunny South Africa…Eita!

A truely South African greeting, which is almost guaranteed to earn you extra street cred if you drop it in casual situations. For those of us who have never heard it before, it is pronounced “eight-ah” – it is the modern day version of the very 1990′s: “Howzit”.

To take the education a little further, take your point scoring into another league include an additional word with Eita and you are winning. The sentence would now read ‘Eita bra/sissi’, depending on whether or not you are greeting a guy or girl. Bra being pronounced “br-ah”, but we all knew that, right? This again, can be compared to the fairly dated “Howzit boet” – this greeting had no gender, it was one size fits all.

Look at me rambling on before I have even begun, to all of those old faithful readers, welcome back. For all of those, who are reading this for the first time. Welcome. I am new here myself, I was presented with this platform to write positive things about South Africa, how could I not. For everyone, I would like to introduce myself. I am Dave, I currently live in (not so) sunny Cape Town. I am hugely passionate about this country and everything it has to offer.

Above all else, there is one thing this country can call its own which inspires me. The people. I am not a huge fan of politics, so I will not discuss that, unless it is funny – then I will, obviously. I am not a major sporting fanatic – although after Friday night (which was the inspiration for this post), the IRB Junior Rugby World Cup Finals. South Africa vs New Zealand. Newlands Park, Cape Town, Africa. 18:30.

I was invited to go and watch the game in a box, I must admit to opportunity of watching the game (any game) from a box was what initially made me want to go. It really is a pleasure, sitting in comfortable seats, not too crowded and nice and warm. Well, so I thought. After the following 80 minutes of jumping up and down when there was a chance at scoring, screaming out my priceless advice and opinions about the ref’s decisions, being struck in awe of 30 000 voices singing and jaunting. I wanted to be part of the mass of fans, I wanted to be wearing green and gold, sitting in the rain and having a castle. I wanted to be as South African as possible right then.

So, gone are the days of me saying I don’t like watching sport. I love it, but what I realise now it is more about your country’s sporting team, representing you and the people around you in a battle against the others. For that period of time, nothing matters – skin colour, culture, home language, nothing. Sport is something which unites us, and that is what I want to see…and be part of. I am definitely going to become a ‘yes’ man when it comes to South African sporting events.

I look forward to writing down the amazing experiences I go through and hear about along the way, in this wonderful country which I call home.

South Africa, jou lekker ding.

Shap shap!

Dave

P.S. How could I not rub in the view from the box. The first picture is our view, during the singing of the national anthems. The second, well that is me pointing to the scoreboard which read ‘SA: 22, NZ: 16′ at full time.

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Did you know that there are literally hundreds of organisations in South Africa that offer complaints services to provide assistance with resolving consumer complaints and grievances. Our partner in the Don’t Complain Campaign, getclosure, describes these remedy providers as “champions”, “enforcers” or “facilitators”.

Champions are organisations that pursue complaints on behalf of customers. The National Consumer Forum is one example. Well-known consumer journalist, Kim Novick on radio station 702, is another example.

Enforcers are organisations that have power conferred by legislation to impose decisions that are binding on customers and their suppliers. Examples include the Consumer Court and regulators such as the National Credit Regulator. Another example would be the Ombudsman established in terms of the Financial Advisors and Intermediary Services Act.

Facilitators are organisations that provide services to assist the resolution of customers’ complaints against certain suppliers but that do not have powers conferred by legislation.  Examples include industry-based ombuds such as the Press Ombudsman and in-house ombuds such as the Mail&Guardian Ombudsman. Another example is the South African Tourism Services Association (SATSA), a voluntary association that undertakes to investigate complaints against its members.

Getclosure, the online complaints management and consumer affairs portal, has compiled a useful list of remedy providers with their contact details:

Facilitators

Champions

Enforcers

It’s worth noting, however, that most of these organisations prefer for you to have attempted to resolve the complaint yourself. We recommend the following:

1. Attempt to sort out the issue with the service provider on the spot. (Check out our guide to complaining effectively.)
2. If you get no joy – submit your complaint to getclosure, who will make sure that the correct person in the organisation receives it.
3. If the supplier is being particularly obstinate, escalate your complaint to the appropriate remedy provider.

So the next time you feel like you are one lone voice shouting into gale when you are trying to resolve a tricky customer service complaint, remember there are a number of organisations you can turn to for help.

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