GULUVA has always been under the impression that diplomatic postings - especially those to exotic places such as New York, London or Paris - were jobs to die or kill for.

Not any longer. That is if the radio interview with Zola Skweyiya, Mzansi's high commissioner in Britain, aired live on the eve of the high-profile wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - to which he had been invited - is anything to go by.

Speaking in a droning voice the seemingly tired, bored and disinterested Skweyiya complained about everything - lack of funds to efficiently run the embassy, expatriates who gave him a tough time for not inviting them to state functions because of budgetary constraints and the department of trade and industry's dilly-dallying tactics in setting up a trade office in London - to mention but three.

The interview sounded more like a gripe session than anything else. Skweyiya did not come across as a happy chappy at all.

The former social development minister also seemed to have been lost in a time warp, referring to Trevor Manuel as Mzansi's minister of finance, before fast-forwarding to 2011 seconds later and waking up to reality of the Pravin Gordhan era.

His invitation to the royal wedding - the biggest talking point throughout the globe in recent weeks - did not even seem to move him. Now, if the trappings that go with diplomatic postings cannot excite him, maybe it's time for the good ole doctor to return home.

After all, there's no place like home.

Godzille goes feet first

A weekend is a long time in politics - long enough to allow politicians to open their mouths so they can change feet.

Take the case of Godzille, for example. At the weekend, she predicted that her Godzille-De Lille Connection, the Democratic Alliance for the uninitiated, would win with an outright majority in Cape Town in the May 18 local government elections.

Good for her, Guluva says.

But when the Sunday Times, Sowetan's sister paper, asked her the same weekend about Godzille-De Lille Connection's chances of winning Johannesburg, where her party is famously fielding a political novice, 30-year-old Mmusi Maimane, as its mayoral candidate, she had this to say: "Things are looking positive (in Johannesburg), but I never predict the outcome of an election before the time because a week is a long time in politics."

It is indeed.

Hitting the wrong note

When the South Gauteng High Court dismissed an application by the South African Music Rights Organisation to rule on the issue of advances made against future royalty payments, faulting the organisation for not providing essential evidence, its spin doctor was quick to deny that the application was not properly prepared.

"It's not an issue of not bringing it [the application] properly. From what I understand, it was technicalities on certain documents that could have been explained better or put forward in a better way," Yavi Madurai said.

This might not sound like music to Madurai's ear, but in Guluva's book, failure to submit documents that "could have been explained better or put forward in a better way" is akin to failure to prepare your case properly.

Try another note, Ms.

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