Rolling vee-i-pees get tempers flaring

The editor bemoans the VIP culture that appears to pervade our ruling party (April 18). VIPs have, however, become small fry.

At a housing lekgotla held last year October at the Vista campus of the University of the Free State, participants were categorised as delegates, VIPs and VVIPs (very very important persons).

While the unfortunate VIPs had to share the parking lot with the plebeians, the double-vee-i-pees were allocated their own reserved parking area near the entrance of the conference centre.

The VIPs were spared the humiliation of having to dine with the lowly delegates and were allowed to share separate, upgraded dining facilities with the VVIPs.

The highest-ranking government officials attending the lekgotla were MECs with VVIP status. I suspect that if a minister had attended, he or she would have been afforded VVVIP status. At least four or five Vs would have been needed for President Thabo Mbeki.

I suggest that we recalibrate our currency of personal importance (as with the Zimbabwean dollar). And why not employ mathematical powers? V4IP is an elegant way of designating a quadruple-vee-i-pee.

Or we could use Roman numerals, following VIP with XIP (extremely important person), LIP (ludicrously important person), CIP (cardinally important person), DIP (dreadfully important person) and MIP (monumentally important person). — François Fourie

I am so disgusted at the attitude of South Africans who always complain about speeding convoys of mayors, ministers and premiers.

Personally I feel that there is nothing wrong with this. Homeland leaders and other rulers of the past did the same. Even traffic officers who today are complaining were part of that arrangement.

Your guess is as good as mine why this has become a talking point all of a sudden. I do not mind giving right of way to any of these people — after all, some people are more equal than others.

Get a life! (I am not a beneficiary in the present dispensation but there is nothing wrong with it for those who are.) — Sipiwo Pahlane

I can’t tell you how happy it made me to see you cover this issue. My colleagues and I are often frustrated when trying to drive to our office in the Johannesburg CBD by the activities of the presidential protection unit (PPU), a branch of the SAPS.

They zoom past traffic jams in the emergency lane, elbow people out of the way, doublepark and generally act like lawless cowboys. In the CBD they seem to believe they can close roads at a whim.

The PPU closes President Street several times a week to deliver VIPs to Luthuli House. They keep the road closed and hang about while the VIPs are in meetings. Until said VIPs are finished, traffic remains at a standstill.

Surely, in a democracy, public goods such as roads and pavements should never be restricted for the convenience of a powerful few? I’ve tried to speak to the plainclothes PPU members on several occasions. They threaten me, tell me that I am causing trouble and refuse to let me know who I can take the matter up with. — Michael de Souza

I wonder how it was done in the apartheid times? Maybe we are just too sensitive because these guys are black. Kader Asmal got the same treatment when he was a minister. Let it go, guys. — Poloko Rasello

Craig Irving’s “Bling-Bling Club” had me rolling in the aisles. Aside from movingly trumpeting the notorious modesty, humility and patience of Corolla-driving ex-minister Asmal, Irving appears to be suffering from the well-known South African syndrome of “bleeding-heart liberalism”.

He is “intensely uncomfortable with the comfort of First World affluence”. Ag shame — presumably in Australia, his previous place of residence, he lived in a shack made of sackcloth and ashes under Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Never fear, Craig — there are many uncomfortable “Third World” settlements in and around Cape Town that I am sure would welcome you with open arms. — Ruth Muller

I am delighted you are highlighting the nonsense of motorcades and other bling indulged in by our rulers. I live in Gardens, Cape Town, and walk in the area regularly.

A posse of large black cars with blue lights and whoopy sirens comes down Hof Street, turns into Orange and stops, blocking the traffic so that the biggest black car, presumably carrying Premier Ebrahim Rasool, can avoid stopping. This is repeated at every intersection.

Then it is repeated in reverse at the end of the day. At least Rasool (if it is him) doesn’t have outriders on motorbikes stopping in the middle of intersections to allow Cabinet ministers through. I have watched this happen at the Orange and Hatfield streets’ lights, with a wait for the traffic of at least four light changes! — Sue Townsend