(Updates after Parreira appointed)

Joel Santana arrived for what he thought was a routine review of his work with his South African Football Association bosses on Monday and within hours was packing his bags for a return to Brazil, ending his tenure as the 15th coach employed by South Africa in the last 17 years.

The run of poor results in recent internationals plus last year's early elimination from the African Nations Cup qualifiers, had left Bafana Bafana in deep crisis, a team without any confidence or direction and running out of time before hosting the 2010 World Cup finals.

Santana had done himself few favours, first with his inability to learn passable English even after 18 months in the country and secondly his glib answers to increasingly concerned questions about the progress of the team. His side have looked listless and without direction in recent matches.

Santana was the second coach in the country's Brazilian experiment, following Carlos Alberto Parreira as South Africa turned to the land of the five-time word champions for the expertise to mould their 2010 team.

Parreira has now returned to the job. He quit in April 2008 after his wife was found to have cancer. She has since recovered and he had indicated over the last days he would be interested in returning to the job.

There was, however, a clamour for a local coach to take over, with popular sentiment believing the experiment with foreign coaches has failed. In the past the deluge of callers to phone-in shows on radio and TV has influenced the decision of SAFA, which makes for a potentially dangerous decision-making.

The issue of Santana's successor was discussed on Friday by the association's leadership and Parreira will be in charge for the next internationals at home to Japan and Jamaica in mid-November. He will have six months to resurrect the country's hopes of at least making it past the first round.

PHOTO: Carlos Alberto Parreira reacts during a match against Swaziland at Ellis Park in Johannesburg March 13, 2007. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

Africa's emerging commercial real estate markets may look tempting from the outside, but will remain the preserve of those with the highest appetite for risk.

Even the CEO of Growthpoint, South Africa's largest listed property firm, feels the continent (excluding South Africa) is not for the faint-hearted.

"We're sceptical with those African countries further north. Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda etc ... you're never sure if the law protects your property rights. The law around property title is certainly nowhere near as advanced as you would get in South Africa."

But others are more optimistic. Knight Franks' head of Africa Peter Welborn told a Reuters Summit in June that Africa opportunities were just as good if not better than other emerging markets such as Asia and Latin America, promising hefty returns.

Growthpoint is the landlord for some 440 commercial properties in South Africa, but owns just two buildings in the rest of the continent, in neighbouring Namibia.

"We're not unhappy with our properties in Namibia, but we're not necessarily long-term holders," Sasse says, adding those were inherited as part of Growthpoint's past portfolio purchases. Instead, the company is casting its net much further afield to Australia, where he says its new property unit could spend A$2 billion on acquisitions over the next two years.

South Africa’s largest trade union federation was quick to break into stirring songs of class struggle during its recent congress and COSATU members showed an impressive ability to sign along in unison.

But the question of what it is fighting for these days and its role in the ruling tripartite alliance with the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party has never been under such great scrutiny as it has since President Jacob Zuma took office in May.

Zuma’s struggle for power would have been much harder to win – perhaps even impossible – without the support of the unions and he was happy to take centre stage at the COSATU conference in a bright red Mao-style suit.

But while ever ready to promise support for fighting poverty, Zuma has shown scant sign of agreeing to union demands for everything from big increases in spending to the nationalisation of the central bank.

Unions are now preparing to do battle over the fate of Trevor Manuel, who won the respect of markets as finance minister for policies that unions see as too pro-business and who now heads a planning commission in the presidency.

As well having little love for Manuel, unions feel his role is undermining one of their own in the government - Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel.

But the argument highlights the difficulty for COSATU of being both within a broad government it helped bring to power and trying to then pressure that government for changes in the name of a working class struggle.

The face of the union is changing too. Although the theme of the congress was “Consolidating Working Class Power in Defence of Decent Work and for Socialism”, a steady stream of high end German cars made it easy to spot the way to the conference venue.

During the darkest days of apartheid, COSATU leaders struck fear into the white minority ruled-state - they had the ability to bring the country to a grinding halt and they knew it.

Now their power appears more limited over a government they did as much as anyone to put in place.

Picture: A COSATU member marches in Durban in protest against high prices, August 6, 2008. REUTERS/Rogan Ward

For anyone who has seen the hit film District 9, it’s no surprise a Nigerian minister would be upset by it.

The science fiction film, set in South Africa, is an allegory on segregation and xenophobia, with alien life forms cooped up in a township of the type that grew up under apartheid and victimised and despised by humans of all descriptions.

No section of human society comes across particularly well, but the Nigerians are crudely caricatured as gangsters, cannibals, pimps, prostitutes and dealers in guns and addictive drugs (in this case cat food). The gang leader’s name sounds exactly like the surname of Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

It’s just a film of course and the slurs needn’t overly detract from the entertainment. (They didn’t for the Nigerian half of my family anyway).

But this does raise a question as to why Nigerians should be seen as fair targets and casually turned into comic book gangsters? Would the film makers have got away with showing other nations or groups in this way? Would they have feared the backlash?

It also raises the question as to what Nigeria can do about really changing its image – beyond rebranding and advertising campaigns.

It could be argued that the immense and undoubted talent of law-abiding Nigerians, the vast majority at home and abroad, does not get the recognition it deserves in the rest of the world despite the acclaim for the greatest Nigerian writers, musicians, footballers and athletes.  Nor may the sacrifice of Nigerians who have given their lives as peacekeepers in Africa and elsewhere.

But we can’t forget that there are still plenty of Nigeria’s 150 million people who have no qualms about giving their country a bad name.

What about the Nigerians imprisoned in Asia and Europe for smuggling drugs? The ‘419’ fraudsters with their email appeals? The kidnappers and oil thieves of the Niger delta? Those politicians who rig elections with fraud, intimidation and bribery? Those officials who see their positions merely as a chance to fill their boots and may be all too ready to subvert the courts or obstruct people struggling to do business fairly?

And how can Nigeria’s image improve while it cannot regularly light up the homes of its people - despite enormous energy resources and billions of dollars spent?

Does Nigeria suffer unfairly from an image problem or will it improve its image once it deals with its problems?

There has been some excellent writing and drama from South Africa over the years, and much of it is serious stuff.

One thinks perhaps of Athol Fugard and J.M. Coetzee. Even the titles — Sizwe Bansi is Dead and Disgrace — convey a certain gravitas, at the very least.

So, a science fiction movie set in Johannesburg comes, to many outside South Africa at least, as something of a surprise.

For those who haven’t seen it, South African-born director Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 is the story of how a mysterious space craft appears over Johannesburg.

It turns out to contain starving aliens, referred to scathingly as “prawns”, who are brought down to the city and housed in an enormous and chaotic shanty ghetto.

The film is done in the form of a documentary — although it can’t resist some good
old-fashioned shoot-outs involving the aliens’ space weapons.

It’s also pretty funny as it satirises just about everybody — the bureaucrats given the task of evicting the prawns from District 9, the soldiers who have to be restrained from shooting them, the Nigerian bandits who exploit them ruthlessly and the unfortunate prawns themselves, who are addicted to cat food.

But of course it’s not all sci-fi fun. This being South Africa, audiences are also asked to consider more ponderous questions that relate to the country’s racial history and also how to deal with “aliens” who suddenly appear on the doorstep after being afflicted by some crisis at home — something the South African government has had to contend with in recent years as Zimbabwe has imploded, forcing millions across the border.

Canada’s decision to grant refugee status to white South African Brandon Huntley has drawn anger from the ruling African National Congress, which described it as racist, and has again stirred the race debate in South Africa 14 years after the end of apartheid.

Huntley had cited persecution by black South Africans as the reason why he could not return to the country of his birth. The chair of the Canadian panel that granted his request said he had shown evidence “of indifference and inability or unwillingness” of South Africa’s government to protect white South Africans from “persecution by African South Africans”.

“I find that the claimant would stand out like a ’sore thumb’ due to his colour in any part of the country,” the chair of the tribunal panel, William Davis, was quoted as saying.

In his application for asylum, Huntley said he had been a victim of multiple crimes by black South Africans and added that white South Africans were a target.

He pointed at the country’s Black Economic Empowerment policies as institutionalised reverse racism that has ensured that he has no opportunities.

The Ottawa Sun described how Huntley first came to Canada to work as a carnival attendant on a six-month work permit in 2004, came back in 2005 and then stayed on illegally until he made a refugee claim in 2008.

Anyone visiting South Africa will certainly see plenty of evidence of white South Africans doing extremely well and generally having a higher standard of living than the majority of black South Africans. White South Africans head many top firms while the highest crime rates are not in the suburbs of the affluent, but in the poor black townships.

Many members of minority groups do complain, however, that they are discriminated against in the Rainbow Nation, led by the ANC since Nelson Mandela took office as president in 1994.

Was Canada justified in giving refugee status to Huntley or was the decision racist? If white South Africans can claim refugee status then who can’t? Is the ANC over-reacting and missing a sign of disaffection by a large minority group?

Have your say.

South Africa ’s  Caster Semenya returned home today following her 800m gold medal-win at the  World Athletics Championships in Berlin .

She was greeted by headlines from the country’s newspapers, expressing collective  national pride for her achievement.  “Welcome home, Caster, our champ. Caster, this nation is proud of you and we stand behind you, from Cape Town to Musina.”, screamed  the Johannesburg-based The Times Newspaper.

Her achievement should give hope to those South Africans in the far flung and unnoticed rural areas who want to be top achievers that they too can be champions.  Caster, who was born in a small village of Ga-Masehlong , has overcome a number of obstacles  in getting to where she is today -  hopefully her triumph will inspire her country to honour her.

There have been calls for government to rename the new South African public transport system, the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT), after her.  A lot is also expected from corporate South African to offer her incentives and rewards for making her country proud in Berlin .

There  is talk in some quarters that the great honour for Caster should come from President Jacob Zuma, who has promised to fight poverty and improve the lives of all South Africans. They say Zuma should ensure that Caster is removed from poverty. The state should see to it that Caster receives some monetary  reward for her achievement.

Afterall,  it would not be the first time that excellence is rewarded with money. In neighbouring Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe awarded $100,000 to Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry for winning a gold medal at Beijing Olympics swimming events.

Caster deserves something from this nation,  and as The Times summed it up: “Her achievement is the greatest single sporting achievement by South African women on track, and it might be the greatest ever in all disciplines.”

Is a  handshake from the president and applause from South Africans enough for  South Africa ’s newest sporting heroine?

All eyes were on Caster Semenya when the South African lined up for the start of her 800m final on Wednesday, but for all the wrong reasons.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said on Wednesday, hours before Semenya was due to run, that the procedure for a gender test had started following her rapid performance improvement in the past year.

Let's get one thing clear at the outset: this case has nothing to do with cheating or any attempt to gain unfair advantage.

If an athlete, as has been the case several times in the past, disguises himself or herself as a member of the opposite sex to gain an unfair advantage, then they should be exposed, banned and accept any consequences of their attempts to cheat.

But this case is nothing of the sort and the IAAF would be better to leave well alone.

What would happen anyway if a gender verification test -- click here for an excellent overview of the way testing is done --  were to prove, after weeks of examinations, that an athlete was not really female, medically speaking?

What would the IAAF do? Take her medal away and risk the legal wrangles, the years of public disputes that would follow?

The IAAF itself has said that Semenya has done nothing wrong, that "we are not talking about cheating". So why bother with the test?

And again, what would they do? Send her off to run with the men? Obviously her times are not quick enough to be compared to men. She won with a time of 1:55.45 minutes. The men's world record is a massive 13 seconds faster in the two-lap event. Even the women's world record is a huge two seconds-plus faster and it has been standing for 26 years, set by Czechoslovakia's Jarmila Kratochvilova.

According to her mother, grandmother, headmaster and friends Semenya was raised as a girl, lives like a woman and competes like one.

So why not do these tests quietly, as IAAF general secretary Pierre Weiss so correctly said when he took her place in the winner's press conference to protect her from the media, and shut this and any similar cases quietly and discreetly, accepting that in life as in sport not everything is as simple as black or white, right or wrong, or even male or female.

PHOTO: Caster Semenya celebrates victory in the women's 800 metres final during the world athletics championships at the Olympic stadium in Berlin, August 19, 2009. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

Eighteen-year-old Mokgadi ‘Caster’ Semenya is being celebrated as a national hero in South Africa after winning the 800 metres at the World Athletics Championships, but the decision by international athletics officials to order a gender verification test has stirred deep anger – and brought accusations of prejudice against the country and the continent.

Many in South Africa feel a victory by their talented young athlete is being tarnished by bad losers and a world all too  ready to mock. Sensitivities to prejudice are never far from the surface in the country where apartheid white minority rule ended just 15 years ago.

South Africans point out that headlines such as “Is she really a HE?”, in Britain’s Daily Mail, and the question of gender verification only surfaced when Semenya started to do much better than her peers.

“It shows that these imperialist countries can’t afford to accept the talent that Africa as a continent has,” the South African Football Players Union said in a message of congratulation to Semenya.

Politicians stepped in too.

“The ANC YL condemns with contempt those who are questioning her gender,” said the ever vocal Youth League of the Ruling African National Congress.

Some even drew parallels between Semenya and an unpleasant episode from the colonial era - Sarah Baartman, a South African woman, was taken from her rural homeland in 1810 and paraded to the world as a freak because of her unusual physical features. Her remains were finally brought back to South Africa in 2002 and laid to rest.

Whatever the results of the officials’ tests on Semenya - and the scientific procedures could take months – most South Africans are convinced that she is not a cheat but a great athlete who will return to a huge welcome.

Poor South Africans have called upon newly elected president Jacob Zuma to keep his election promises on service delivery. The past week has seen a number of protests flaring up across South Africa against what protesters called poor service delivery.

In one township in the country’s Mpumalanga province residents barricaded the entire township, burning tyres, throwing stones at policemen and calling for the head of the local mayor, whom they described as “good for nothing”. “There is no development. You can see for yourself,” one resident told journalists. He spoke of alleged neglect and apparent self enrichment from local government officials.

Locals also complained about being “overlooked” for jobs in the local municipalities in favour of people from outside.

Demonstrations lasted nearly the whole day on Wednesday 22nd July. Later in the afternoon the local municipal council came to address the crowds who-for-a-while refused to listen to their elected officials. One thing they wanted clarified was whether their brothers and sisters- arrested during the last two days of protests would be released before they could listen to whatever the town council’s meeting had concluded. Ninety-nine residents had been taken into police custody.

Siyathemba Township is but one example of this recent surge in protests against perceived lack of service delivery. The challenges of getting access to water and sanitation facilities, health care, employment, and electricity fifteen years into democratic South Africa are being brought up, albeit via the protests.

The residents in Siyathemba said they want Zuma to act on non-performing government officials. Do these protests suggest that poor South Africans are exercising their democratic right by speaking out on non performing government officials? Does the South African government simply view these protestors as unruly and unemployed youths who are out to damage the reputation of the country and Zuma? Or does national government pressure  local and provincial governments to deliver on their elections mandate?