/ 14 June 1985

Sordid Affairs

The menacing chili of Jamba has struck again. While listening to the welcoming speeches at Jonah Savimbi’s bush camp at Jamba last weekend, tele-person Cliff Saunders dipped his fingers into the chili bowl.

Soon after, he became overcome by an urge to investigate an irritation afflicting his olfactory organ. For this purpose, he naturally made use of the self-same finger. As a result, he was soon after seen writhing in pain.

Who says Cliff doesn’t have a nose for news?

Saunders is not the first victim of the jamba curse. The editor of a great South African newspaper was not so long ago similarly afflicted, but in a more delicate anatomical arena.

IBM executives ought to be more careful about who they send to seminars. At a recent one staged by the Black Management Forum, the American computer company’s management was invited to reveal all about its much-vaunted equal opportunity programme.

The tale sounded great until various not-altogether-grateful black IBM employees, who formed half the audience, spent question-time dissecting their employers’ claims to equal opportunity.

It can be revealed that a prominent Johannesburg attorney, a partner in a leading firm, was recently asked by a client for a second opinion. He got one — and was offended to find that it contradicted his own original opinion.

Naturally, he did what any sensible professional would do: he changed it by erasing certain erring passages before reporting it to his client. Unfortunately, he got caught. Watch this space for more thrilling details.