E-Toll event fails as about 40 people turn up

Electronic tolling has caused a bit of havoc lately in our country in the past few months, resulting to a massive strike formed by unions who call on the banning of the e-tolling systems. the strike that has took place has caused the country billions of rands due to the fact that during a strike everything comes to a standstill meaning business do not run like on normal basis because most workers go out to support the strikes that take place.

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The first strike on the electronic tolling was organised by the union COSATU and it took place on the 7th of March 2012, its turn out was positive and the strike was successful as thousands and thousands of people from all over the country participated. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the second protest organised by the Freedom Front Plus (FF+), the National Taxpayers Union, the South African Caravan Association and various motobike club. This event was to take place on Thursday 29 March 2012 at the Ultra City on the N1 highway between Pretoria and Johannesburg, this event failed because:

• it was not well organised
• a proper research was not conducted
• lastly its because only about 40 supporters turned up for the protest.

Protersters voicing their views

In public relations I have learned that in order for an event to be successful the company or an organisation should plan the event, conduct a good research and do some sort of advertising which is a way for an organisation to be able to communicate with their target audiences. Had the organisers done these three things I am pretty sure that the protest would have not failed as it did. the Joburg metro police clearly said the protest was illegal, this is because no one had communicated with them before the day of the strike.

Leader of Freedom Front Plus Pieter Mulder

Freedom Front Plus spokesman Anton Alberts on Thursday morning said the idea behind the protest was to make sure that a "certain section" of the population was heard, not just the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions, he added that there are certain organisations and sections of the population who are still unhappy with the tolling system and they also want to encourage other sections of the population, other political parties and civil organisations to come out and hold various actions on their own.


Besides the protest failing the only positive incident that erupted was the public relations stunt that was pulled by "Mal Jan " van der Merwe who is the stuntman at the Jacaranda 94.2 FM breakfast show, he decided to show up with his camel at the march. The camel had attracted considerably more attention than Freedom Front Plus stikers which were encouraging R15 SMS donation to their cause

Mal Jan van der Merwer and his camel

Hopefull the organisers of this event will learn to organise properly in order for their event to succeed next time.

An end to end action Soweto derby

The much supported soccer teams in S.A-Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates

Some hearts were broken and some hearts were filled joy, this is after a thrilling soccer match which took place on the 17th of March 2012 in front of a whooping 87 171 fans at the FNB stadium. The teams that took part in the game were the glamour boys from Naturena Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. A match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates is famously known as the Soweto derby, its considered one of the most fiercely contested matches in Africa football. The very first match played by these two big teams was on the 24th of January 1970.

FNB stadium

Matches between these two rivals seem to attract a large fanbase seeing that the tickets had been sold out earlier in the week prior to the big match. A public relations practitioner from Metrorial issued out a press release on the 16th of March 2012 just a day before the Soweto derby, to inform the fans who were going to the stadium that a train service was going to be available for the fans travelling from Vereeniging, Leralla, Pretoria and Johannesburg directly to Nasrec station, which is a five minute walk from the stadium. A total of six trains was made available and fans were suppose to purchase the tickets for the train at Metrorail stations from as little as R20 for a return trip. As a public relations student i would say that the Metrorail did a good to issue a press release, this was a good way to communicate with the fans who were going to the stadium. Motorists were also advised to use alternative routes because the Soweto highway was closed between the N1 and Mentz road and the Nasrec road was closed between Rand Show road. The roads were closed from 10:00am and were re-opened at 19:00pm. These road closure usually happen when there are huge events taking place at the stadium.

Chiefs and Pirates fans joined together to watch their teams play

This soccer event was supported by alot of soccer lovers and die-hard fans of Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. Fans walked in the stadium with their different funny outfits. From men sporting grofesque masks, miniskirts, bras and church robes and women in odd wigs and kitted in full soccer gear.This is truly one event that does bring people together.

Etv Pulling Out Of The 2012 SAFTA Awards

The well known television channel Etv was once again in the news following the issue of the station pulling out of the 2012 South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTA). Etv is the fifth terrestrial televison channel in South Africa following three channels operated by the state owned South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC 1, 2 and 3) and privately owned subscription funded M-NET which is operated by Multichoice. According to [www.wikipedia.co.za] Etv is the first privately owned but free to air television station in the country. 

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The SAFTA awards started way back in 2005 when the representatives of the South African Film and Television industry resolved to come together under the auspices of the National Film and Video Foundation of the South Africa to establish the annual SAFTA awards. The primary objective of the SAFTA awards is to honour, celebrate and promote the creativity, quality and exellence of South African Film and Television talent and productions and to encourage entrepreneurship and the development of new talent within the industry.

The 6th Annual SAFTAs were held at the Gallegher Estate in Midrand on the 9th and 10th March 2012. The first event on the 9th of March was for winners in the non-fiction categories and the second event on the 10th was for winners in the fiction categories. The Gallegher Estate was filled with the best actors and actresses that our country can offer.

Head of Etv Monde Twala

Even though the awards ceremony was supported by many people from the film and television industry unfortunately Etv had withdraw they programming from the SAFTAs, the channel refused to divulge reasons for its withdrawal. Etv issued out a statement  Monday afternoon prior to the awards confirming the withdrawal of its shows. Group head of Etv channel Monde Twala said in the statement " it is unfortunate that we have had to withdraw our programming from the SAFTAs but we feel that it is necessary to do so in order to achieve greater organisation cohesion." According to articles that have been written the channel felt that their shows and performers had been sidelined in both the nominations and events surrounding the ceremony.Does Etv feel that the SATTAs are only supporting the SABC programmes more than them? Do they feel they not well recognized as a channel? Or did they just withdraw because they felt they did not need to be honoured, celebrated by the SAFTA awards? We will just have to wait and hear the reasons of the withdrawal from the channel itself.

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The Glitz and Glamour at the Oscar Awards 2012




The day most actors and actresses have been patiently waiting for,the 26th of Febuary 2012,this years event took place in Hollywood at the Highland Theatre.The awards were hosted by Billy Crystals, it was his ninth time hosting the Academy Awards. He opened the show by acting in scenes from several faboulous movies. These awards were bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize the excellence of professionals in the film industry which includes directors, actors, and writers.

This well known event was covered by the Guardian film team through out the night. The event was set to start a 1:30am. The stars came walking on the red carpet looking stunning and elegant, some came with their partners and others just prefered to come and enjoy the celebrations alone. Some of the top well known designers had design some of the outfits that were worn by the stars, well known designers like Atelier Versace, Christian Dior and Tom Ford just to name a few. As from a public relations point of view a lot of prepartions were put in to making this a successful event.



The award most stars were
 anticipating to get their hands on



Angelina Jolie looked stunning in her black dress with a high split, her hair was out and flowing and this year she opted for red lip colour. New mum and last year's best actress winner Natalie Portman wore a red strapless polkadot gown which is said to be by 1954 vintage Christian Dior. Miss Jennifer Lopez wore a designer dress by Zuhair Murad, the dress had sleeve cutouts,low V-neck and small train. Princess Charlene decided to show off her swimming arms was accompanied by her husband, Prince Albert II of Monaco, she wore an ivory coloured, shimmers sleeveless gown. Baron Cohen was not even a nominee but he caused perhaps the biggest stir on the red carpet when he showed up with his Mummar Gaddafi inspired outfit from his upcoming film "The Dictator". Ryan Seacrest wore a Burberry suit, which was later on covered in fake ashes of Kim Jong-il, courtesy of the Dictator who spilled them down on the television presenter's front, and he was not pleased at all. The Dictator was accompanied by female security guards dressed in mini-skirts who were carrying large bouquets. One of the winners of the eveninng Octavia Speucer wore a stunning gown courtesy of designer Tadashi Shoji.                                                                  







Natalie Portman and husband






Jennifer Lopez better known as J-LO by fans

Princess Charlene and Prince Albert II

Merlyn Sreep in gold Lavin gown and chain link belt.