GULUVA knows only too well - and has come to grudgingly accept - that the wheels of officialdom will forever move painfully slowly.
There are, as a matter of course, intricate internal and external processes to be followed; relevant legislation and regulations to be complied with; research to be conducted; endless meetings, consultations and debates to be held; tons of paperwork to be produced and filed; and financial and human resources to be deployed every time there is a burning issue to be resolved.
It was precisely for this reason that Guluva did not expect a speedy resolution when animal rights groups went to the Human Rights Commission to complain about Ain't Seen Nothing Yet heavyweight Tony Yengeni's slaughtering of a bull.
The convicted fraudster was alleged to have stabbed the bull with a spear during a cleansing ceremony after his release from prison in 2007. This sparked a fierce debate between animal rights activists and traditionalists on the desirability of such a practice in Mzansi.
Guluva had long forgotten about this incident when a couple of days ago he chanced upon a news report on the commission's verdict.
The commission has ruled that there is nothing wrong with the slaughtering of a beast as long as it is done as part of a religious or cultural ritual.
It has also called on animal rights activists and traditionalists to "listen to each other to find one another".
It is a verdict that many people had expected all along. Guluva notes that it took the commission more than four years to come to a decision that seems pretty straightforward.
That's perhaps why it should not come as a surprise that Public Works Minister Lindiwe Mahlangu-Nkabinde is still to this day battling to read through a 92-page report on the controversial South African Police Service's headquarters lease agreement handed to her by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela more than two months ago.
A swearword
Guluva - probably the only paying reader of The New Rag, the pro-government and Gupta family-funded newspaper, in the whole of Mzansi - continues to be truly entertained by the publication that prides itself in generously rewarding its journalists.
One of the stories that caught Guluva's roving eye this week was on the rejection by the Independent Electoral Commission of high-flying businesswoman Judy Nwokedi's nomination as an Ain't Seen Nothing Yet candidate for Ward 117 in the May 18 local government elections.
In the story, Charles Molele Molele and Luzuko Pongoma report that Nwokedi's nomination was declared null and void by the IEC because she was a "naturalised Australian".
The story went on to say, and Guluva quotes verbatim: "The ward includes the leafy suburbs of Parkhurst, Saxonwold, Rosebank and Blairgowrie. It is home to the ANC's middle classes who run big businesses, and its members include, among others, former director-general of the communications department Mamodupi Mohlala."
What Molele and Pongoma genuinely or conveniently forgot to mention was that the ward was also home to the politically connected Gupta family, the force and power behind The New Rag.
It was a glaring omission. Has the Gupta name become such a swearword in Mzansi that even people closely connected to it are scared to mention it in public?
Email Guluva on: thatha.guluva@gmail.com
The official tortoise forever slower
GULUVA knows only too well - and has come to grudgingly accept - that the wheels of officialdom will forever move painfully slowly.
There are, as a matter of course, intricate internal and external processes to be followed; relevant legislation and regulations to be complied with; research to be conducted; endless meetings, consultations and debates to be held; tons of paperwork to be produced and filed; and financial and human resources to be deployed every time there is a burning issue to be resolved.
It was precisely for this reason that Guluva did not expect a speedy resolution when animal rights groups went to the Human Rights Commission to complain about Ain't Seen Nothing Yet heavyweight Tony Yengeni's slaughtering of a bull.
The convicted fraudster was alleged to have stabbed the bull with a spear during a cleansing ceremony after his release from prison in 2007. This sparked a fierce debate between animal rights activists and traditionalists on the desirability of such a practice in Mzansi.
Guluva had long forgotten about this incident when a couple of days ago he chanced upon a news report on the commission's verdict.
The commission has ruled that there is nothing wrong with the slaughtering of a beast as long as it is done as part of a religious or cultural ritual.
It has also called on animal rights activists and traditionalists to "listen to each other to find one another".
It is a verdict that many people had expected all along. Guluva notes that it took the commission more than four years to come to a decision that seems pretty straightforward.
That's perhaps why it should not come as a surprise that Public Works Minister Lindiwe Mahlangu-Nkabinde is still to this day battling to read through a 92-page report on the controversial South African Police Service's headquarters lease agreement handed to her by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela more than two months ago.
A swearword
Guluva - probably the only paying reader of The New Rag, the pro-government and Gupta family-funded newspaper, in the whole of Mzansi - continues to be truly entertained by the publication that prides itself in generously rewarding its journalists.
One of the stories that caught Guluva's roving eye this week was on the rejection by the Independent Electoral Commission of high-flying businesswoman Judy Nwokedi's nomination as an Ain't Seen Nothing Yet candidate for Ward 117 in the May 18 local government elections.
In the story, Charles Molele Molele and Luzuko Pongoma report that Nwokedi's nomination was declared null and void by the IEC because she was a "naturalised Australian".
The story went on to say, and Guluva quotes verbatim: "The ward includes the leafy suburbs of Parkhurst, Saxonwold, Rosebank and Blairgowrie. It is home to the ANC's middle classes who run big businesses, and its members include, among others, former director-general of the communications department Mamodupi Mohlala."
What Molele and Pongoma genuinely or conveniently forgot to mention was that the ward was also home to the politically connected Gupta family, the force and power behind The New Rag.
It was a glaring omission. Has the Gupta name become such a swearword in Mzansi that even people closely connected to it are scared to mention it in public?
Email Guluva on: thatha.guluva@gmail.com
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