Did you guys not pay attention to the fact that the guy kept moving back in front of the console and looked directly at it whenever he wanted to command it, and that when he wasn't looking at it, yet mentioning commands, it wasn't reacting?
The console gets turned on and recognises a specific user. It will regard any commands given by that effective 'player one' as being the commands it will act on, including hand gestures (assuming someone doesn't stand behind you, stick their arms through under yours and trick the console into thinking your shoulders just dropped).
It also clearly utilizes facial recognition in conjunction with voice recognition.
The TV functions? The thing has an HDMI input, so you'd connect your DSTV PVR decoder to that and then the console to your TV - even if the DSTV PVR decoder never gets a software update allowing you to command it (such as telling it to bring up the DSTV Guide or change channels), you'll still be able to at least watch TV via the console and have a live view of what's going on on the channel it's on via the home screen.
If MultiChoice release a software update for their PVR decoder and/or a new decoder that has the appropriate functionality, then tada, virtually all of the proposed TV functionality is available.
Netflix? Accessible by South Africans if you've a router that allows setting up custom routing tables so you can utilize a proxy for the service. Even if not, who knows, Microsoft SA may make a point of partering with Netflix for a regional service, bringing it to South Africa. Even if they don't, someone else might approach Microsoft SA instead, such as MultiChoice for their DSTV On-Demand services.
And if you're concerned about privacy with regards to the Kinect camera's video getting out onto the net, stop playing while naked, take sexytiems to the bedroom or consider integrating a privacy shade into your TV cabinet to cover the camera with when you want to be absolutely certain undesired video won't make it to the net.