Windfall for SA rugby fans

PAY channel M-Net has not announced whether or not it is to be financially compensated for sharing international rugby with public broadcaster SABC, but it is hard to imagine that in the tough world of business and competition for viewers, the move could be purely altruistic.

But it may be. Previously M-Net screened SA rugby internationals in open time, at no cost to SATV viewers, so it shared the cherry with the nation anyway. That makes it difficult to understand why the government made such a fuss of the pay-channel having a monopoly which it so sportingly made available to all.

In the new deal, M-Net will broadcast the big internationals at 3pm and SATV will be able to put the same games onto its own channel at 5pm.

Admittedly big rugby will now be available to a larger audience, since it will reach into those areas where M-Net has no transmission facility. M-Net scores by getting an exclusive first bite two hours ahead of national TV. So basically, it is yielding second-hand news. Even so, the national broadcaster looks good because its channel offers the games to those who do not have pay TV.

At the same time M-Net gets off its back government officials who do not seem to truly understand the principles of free enterprise – that the top dollar buys the best programmes without any obligation by the successful bidder to give them away.

At the end of the day rugby is in no way prejudiced. It still rakes in the lucrative funding that media contracts earn and many fans get to see the game back to back on the same day, should they want to.

It could be a rare win-win situation for all concerned. Now we just need our boys on the field to get the idea.

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Operation a miracle of modern medicine

THE Kona Siamese twins, Zinzi and Zanele, have now safely passed the critical 72 hours after their marathon separation operation and are reported to be making good progress.

Though teams of surgeons at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town have now performed 35 separations of conjoined twins, the operation on the Port Elizabeth-born babies still seems a miracle of modern science to the lay observer. The twins were born joined at the pelvis, but 21st century medical technology and expertise have given them the hope and opportunity of living normal lives as two separate physical people.

The Konas’ nearly 20-hour operation was the longest yet performed at the hospital.

The surgical team comprised 14 specialists, who split into two groups once the separation was complete so that reconstruction work could be carried out simultaneously on both babies. In a whimsical touch, and a tribute to the babies’ coastal birthplace, one group wore dolphin mascots and the other whales.

The success of this operation reaffirms South Africa, and particularly Cape Town, medical personnel as leaders in their fields. We salute their skill and the innovative research work that led to their being able to perform operations of this kind.

We wish Zinzi and Zanele a speedy, complication-free recovery and look forward to welcoming them home soon.