I was just reading that the rate of inflation in South Africa is now 13%. Oh my gosh!! We may still be a far way off the 11 million percent in Zimbabwe but boy aren’t we going in the wrong direction! The price of everything seems to be going up and many are unable to cope now. I was actually speaking to someone who is saying they have just had to cancel their DSTV subscription because they can no longer afford it and it has turned into a luxury they can do without. They say that the price of fuel will be coming down by about R1 a litre next month, maybe then we will smile again for a short time before the price starts going back up again. I don’t know if it is only me but do you tend to pay much more attention to the business news at 7pm when your are watching the news? In the past we hardly cared too much about where the rand was trading, let alone what the world oil price is, but now you find yourself making sure you do not miss that news.

It is not only on the economic front there is not much to smile about but also on the sports field. I do not think as South Africa we have had a worse sporting time than we have gone through over the last couple of weeks. The Olympic team did not do us any favours and it was sad to see no one go out to welcome them at the airport when they returned from China.

Then we have our Springboks. Boy what a shocker! Can you believe that we are World Champions? From the highs of winning the world cup to being booed off the field last weekend. Something is just not right in SA Rugby right now. Is it the players to blame or is it the coaching staff? It is very easy to point the finger at the coach when the team is not doing well. I feel coach de Villiers has got it wrong and the style of rugby he is try to introduce to the Springboks is just not working. What ever happened to the phrase; “If it is not broken then don’t fix it!” The Springboks were playing so well upto winning the World Cup but now, that same bunch of players is not pulling it off. And now we play Australia again this weekend and I can see another loss for the Springboks unless something drastic happens.

An now the Proteas! What happened yesterday against England? The second lowest total ever by a South African team. I guess we can not be too hard on the cricketers as they did pull off a great win in the test series. But they too have to get their act together in the ODI’s and not get white washed. Looking at Bafana Bafana, well, their last game was a credible 2-2 draw against Australia but still the team does not look like it will do us proud come 2010. A lot of work still needs to go into Bafana Bafana but for now we just have to support them.

So there goes my dilemma. I am finding it very hard to find anything to smile about right now in South Africa. But as they say, “Good things come to those that wait” so let us wait to see if this frown turns into a smile.

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