The allegations against Mbulelo Goniwe are but a horsefly on the ass of the ANC, says Smuts Ngonyama. ”Mistakes do happen,” he said this week, ”but that does not mean that will change the image of the party. The party is too big to be affected by one person’s mistakes.” Apparently one person by the name of Jacob Zuma has been forgotten, but Lemmer wonders if Oom Smuts is willing to see his thinking through to its logical conclusion. After all, if the mistakes of an individual can’t hurt the party, and the party will always protect the individual, then mistakes can’t hurt individuals either. Accountability, anyone?
Between the lines #2
This week Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula lambasted security companies for sending employees into the line of fire unprotected. ”The poor guards are driving vehicles that are not reinforced. Why are those companies not training people adequately and providing them with high-calibre weapons?” The manne would like to thank Chuck for clarifying matters by implying that crime prevention no longer plays a part in the national safety and security strategy, and that if you get murdered it’s because you weren’t packing an AK like the other guy.
Your final answer
Time for this week’s round of ”Guess the Legacy”. According to a spokesperson for home affairs, speaking on SAfm this week, the corruption and chaos in that department is a legacy of which political system? You guessed it! Apartheid!
You’re kidding, right?
So let’s get this straight. Swaziland signed a deal with the apartheid government in which it would be given Nelspruit in return for resisting the ANC; and now the Swazis want that deal honoured by an ANC government? The Oom isn’t sure what they’re smoking in Swaziland these days, but whatever it is, it’s potent stuff.
Stilettoed foot in mouth
After the M&G‘s first Agliotti exposé in May, reporters Sam Sole and Stefaans Brümmer were nominated for the ”Monty Python award” after ”something went seriously wrong for them … in their opus on some poor fellow named Glenn Agliotti”. The omniscient nominator in this case was one Jeremy Gordin, writing as Karen Bliksem in the Sunday Independent. In return for the Monty Python gong, we’d like to bestow our own honour upon Gordin: the annual Cliff Saunders Getting Uppity and Losing the Plot (Gulp) award.