At the risk of sounding dreadfully sexist, Lemmer believes that women’s organisations — which regularly complain about the lack of media coverage of their efforts — sometimes have only themselves to blame.
If you didn’t read much about the International Women’s Forum (IWF) that was held in Sandton last week, don’t blame the media. The meeting kicked off with a bang when Madiba — addressing a crowd of predominantly American women — slammed Bushbaby for not listening to the United Nations because it has a black leader. The women gasped and turned pink in their African print caftans.
The next day the media was barred from all sessions and held in a tiny room in the convention centre. The dames were very upset about the coverage of what our former president had said, and were duly punishing those naughty reporters.
The hacks were then briefed by IWF PR poppies (with wagging fingers) that they were not allowed to ask delegates or anyone for interviews. ”You must write down the names of the people you want to interview and then perhaps we can arrange five minutes with them,” they were told.
The most deliciously ludicrous instruction concerned one of the key speakers: ”You must sit and listen to Deputy President Jacob Zuma and not ask questions.” They were then marched into the ballroom in single file, told to sit down and then forced to listen to Zuma sprouting on about how South Africans can speak their minds.
Rhoo’s rubbish
Leeds United soccer club in Britain have been been having a dreadful time of it on and off the field in the past couple of years — never mind an , its fans are having a decade horribilus. The problems started when two of the club’s players went on trial for a racist attack on a young Asian man in the city and have continued through changing managers and discovering that the club is nearly R1-billion in debt. The resultant fire sale of some of the team’s top players has had cynics renaming the club, which plays at Elland Road, Selland Road.
But just when the club seemed to have run out of ways to shoot itself in the foot, Oom Krisjan hears that his favourite Leeds player, Bafana captain Lucas Radebe, has found another.
Rhoo, who has been dogged by injury over the past few seasons, stumbled while putting out the rubbish bins and crocked his knee again. It ruled him out of the side’s mid-week FA Cup replay — and the South African defender must have been very relieved that his side still managed to win the match.
Cop capers
Staying with matters in rooinekland, Oom Krisjan is sure readers have heard of the hostage drama that started on Boxing Day. Briefly, a lone gunman with a single hostage (who later escaped out the back door, unhurt) in a second floor flat, kept the police and Scotland Yard at bay for 15 days. The gunman was later found dead in the flat, nobody being sure if he got killed by the officers outside or committed suicide. Strangely, a few days later another lone gunman attempted a similar escapade, but was talked out of his intentions by an ordinary policeman within five minutes. That one bobby must have been new on the job and not familiar with official procedure.
Wet blankets
The cricket World Cup that kicks off (or whatever) this weekend is finally igniting the public imagination. But the organisers are very determined that no one will be allowed to do anything that might upset anyone. A revised list of banned and prohibited items arrived at the Dorsbult this week and Oom Krisjan is pleased to inform you that you will now be allowed to take water into the sacrosant precints of the stadiums — as long as it is in a soft plastic container with no advertising marks on it. Well, there goes the Evian (naive backwards) bottle.
The instructions do not specify whether offenders will be put up against a wall and shot or merely have their tickets thrown on to a huge bonfire (lit, of course, with non-branded matches).
Among the items that will be confiscated are old South African flags, but Lemmer is curious about what the organisers intend to do to police those who bring the new Y-front flag. He’s noticed that at every match there’s at least one ”Proudly South African” fan who enthusiastically waves the flag upside down. Since this is an internationally accepted symbol that either the government has been overthrown or that those flying the flag upside down do not accept the authority of the government, surely this is a bigger insult to the nation than a bottle of mineral water?
Plus ça change …
They say a leopard can’t change its spots. And that the more things change the more they stay the same. Despite the addition of ”New” to the official title, there are some in the National Party who still appear to hark back to the old days. Over a lekker dop, Oom Krisjan learned from a vigilant friend in the visdorpie that at least one NNP worker at Parliament still has an affinity for the apartheid days: a miniature version of the old flag has been spotted on the windowsill in one of the party offices.
Courting trouble (1)
On matters up north, the treason trial of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai began this week in Harare. It might be a subtle hint to the judge or merely serendipity but the Movement for Democratic Change boss’s defence team — led by South African anti-apartheid advocate George Bizos — includes lawyer Innocent Chagonda.
Courting trouble (2)
Lemmer hears, from a sometimes reliable source, that a cop appeared in the Jozi courts recently accused of accepting an eeny-weeny bribe from someone who had committed a little traffic offence. His solemn defence was that it was ”an out-of-court settlement”.
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