AS THE storm brewing around controversial government spokesman Jimmy Manyi's "over-supply of coloureds" remark took new twists and turns this week, a sideshow - between a pot and a kettle - was taking place in Parliament.

During a heated debate on who should serve on the SABC board, the pot was heard by members of the parliamentary portfolio committee on communications loudly calling the kettle black.

How else does Guluva explain Congress of the People member of Parliament Juli Killian's tirade when she told everyone, with a straight face nogal, that the SABC was "on life support"?

Of course, with no one in that beleaguered establishment knowing whether they are coming or going, you would say Killian is in fact not far off the mark as far as the overall health of the public broadcaster is concerned.

But she is the last one to make such a statement. The last time Guluva checked, Killian's party - Cope - was also on life support, if not terminally ill.

Killian and her mates would do well to remember that when you live in a glass house you cannot throw stones.

Hands off Kuli

You have to give it to Guluva's fiery, entertaining, no-holds-barred and talented media colleague, Kuli Roberts, for owning up to her indiscretion and apologising to everyone who felt offended by her recent and last column headlined "Jou ma se kinders".

That the column left many people fuming is an understatement.

You cannot, for instance, say: "These (coloured) girls breed as if Allan Boesak sent them on a mission to increase the coloured race" and not expect an outpouring of emotions and anger.

Roberts' sincere and unequivocal apology must have put this regrettable saga completely behind her by now. We should now allow Nomakula (that's Kuli in full), who has already suffered the ignominy of losing her column, to get on with her life.

But Guluva sincerely hopes her first name will not be used as an excuse to spark another race war in this politically poisoned environment.

Unlike Nomaindia (as in Nomaindia Mfeketo, deputy speaker of the National Assembly), the name Nomakula might be interpreted by some people as a derogatory reference to our compatriots of Indian descent.

If that war takes place, we must leave our Nomakula out of it.

Playing games

While two top English soccer sides, Manchester United and Arsenal, are engaged in an exciting but bitter neck-and-neck race in a bid to snatch the prestigious Barclays Premiership League title at the end of the season, some clubs think the whole competition is a big joke.

You will have noticed that four of the 20 clubs are fighting tooth and nail to remain at the bottom of the log standings.

Reason? There is no plausible explanation other than to say they want to keep their alphabetical positions on the log table by all means necessary come the end of May.

It surely can't be a coincidence that, with the league season nearing an end, all the English premiership clubs with names starting with a "W" are rooted at the bottom of the table: West Brom, Wolverhampton, West Ham United and Wigan Athletic.

They must also tell us if they want to start their own Internet, which will probably be called weaklings' worldwide web, with four "w"s instead of the normal three that we are already accustomed to.

E-mail Guluva on: thatha.guluva@gmail.com.