2010 World Cup generalissimos Danny Jordaan and Irvin Khoza have denied reports that they almost came to blows three weeks ago over a travel tender that wasn’t awarded to a company owned by a friend of Khoza. But Lemmer wishes they wouldn’t be so quick to bury the whole concept. After all, if the doomsayers are vindicated, and the 2010 event is moved to Australia, robbed South Africans should at least get to see Jordaan and Khoza going at each other WWE-style, breaking boardroom chairs over each other’s heads. Any broadcaster wishing to secure the rights to ”2010 Fiasco Slapdown Raw — Danny Death v The Irvinator” should call the Dorsbult switchboard.
Zzzzzzz
This week, Gauteng MEC Angie Motshekga was ordered to apologise to the legislature for not disclosing her husband’s interests in dormant companies. Dodgy, perhaps, but Lemmer and the manne can’t stay angry with any state official involved in education: at the very least, she’s got an interest in dormant teachers and downright comatose learners.
Descending
Lemmer hears that a recent Mango flight had to be diverted because of a crack in the front window. He can understand why most airlines would have taken this precaution, but isn’t sure why Mango bothered. After all, recent complaints in the media suggest that depressurisation is the order of the day at SAA’s Mini Me, with call-centre staff, departure and arrival schedules, and online booking systems all showing not the slightest hint of pressure or urgency.
Winds of changes
Lemmer would never try to suggest that the Democratic Alliance is a party run by the force of one person’s will alone, but he does find it noteworthy that, in the same week that Tony Leon announced his imminent departure, a conciliatory, non-confrontational headline appeared on the party’s website. ”Government AIDS Policy: A refreshing turnabout” was a refreshing turnabout all on its own, after months — perhaps years — of demands, ultimatums, and much cyber hair-pulling. Are the winds of change starting to blow through whitest Africa?
Word perfect
After his appeal to readers last week to suggest a word that sums up the year now ending, the Oom has been inundated by mail. Well, at least by Dorsbult standards: four emails might not blow up the skirts of big-city jollers, but out here they’ve stretched the municipal server to the limits of what 1993 technology can do. Thank you to all who contributed: you are all special people, with special needs. But most special was Duncan, whose contribution surely says it all. ”How about ‘Shower’ as SA’s word of the year? Between Zuma, Manto and now (apparently) Selebi, our reputation has taken a, um, bath, so to speak.”