Cybersurf: Political web sites – update
29 March 04


Hello, good morning and how do you do? This is Cybersurf – a weekly window on the World Wide Web and I am your cyberhost – Steven Lang.

As we draw ever closer to the next national and provincial elections, Cybersurf finds it necessary to re-look at electioneering on the web.

Now, because most South Africans do not have access to the Internet, parties have made only a token effort at serious online campaigning.

I believe that just about every party has a least some web presence, but most have not been very good at responding to e-mail queries.

(T) I recently received an e-mail from the ACDP inviting me to review the party’s election site. I was advised not to look at the general site at www.Acdp.org.za - because that is still under construction, but the only way to get to the election site is through the main front page.

The site is fairly standard in terms of presentation – it is clean, easy to read and easy to navigate with a horizontal navigation bar across the top of the page and a secondary, vertical, navigation bar down the right hand side.

A link marked “candidate list” only gives the names and brief profiles of the top candidates – maybe the only ones that have a realistic chance of getting a seat.

It has a very detailed section carrying the party’s election manifesto and a comprehensive election diary section that not only tells you where the party leaders will be campaigning, but it also gives you direct cell phone numbers of whoever is organising that part of the campaign.

If you are interested in the acdp’s election campaign, you have to visit acdp.org.za – incidentally almost all party web sites can be found by typing in the party’s initials and then dot org dot za.

Before we close Cybersurf, I have to refer you to a completely different type of political site at www. Zabalaza.net let me spell that: Z.A.B.A.L.A.Z.A dot net – a site that describes itself as being dedicated to Southern African anarchism – the address of this site was sent to me by someone who signs off as BLACKDRAGON.

The front page of Zabalaza dot net has a link to a poster which says – ‘Why bother to vote – if voting changed anything, they would make it illegal” – so if you would like to download a poster with that anarchist viewpoint – click along to zabalaza dot net.

So we wrap up another edition of Cybersurf – I will put this entire script in my personal blogspace at www.stevenlang.blogspot.com thanx for listening and remember – to keep on surfing.