WHEN Guluva saw the acronym "natcom" in a newspaper report quoting a police source as saying that the cops were gunning to nab Public Protector Thulisile Madonsela on fraud and corruption charges, his blood pressure instantly spiralled out of control.

The last time he saw a similar acronym was in the dreaded apartheid days - there goes Guluva again, giving away his age.

The bloodcurdling "stratcom" was a propaganda apparatus of the feared security police, used as a tool to discredit anti-apartheid activists such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela by planting false rumours about them in local and international newspapers.

So you can understand Guluva's apprehension when the acronym "natcom" surfaced in a chilling newspaper report about alleged moves to drag the fearless fighter for the people's interests through the mud.

Madonsela, who is about to release a damning report on the controversial R1,1billion South African Police Service's Durban property deal, was alleged in the newspaper article to have irregularly received a R1,8million payment from the Department of Justice, which she at one point served as a full-time commissioner.

Of course, the public protector has vehemently denied suggestions of improper conduct, calling the allegations "baseless and malicious", and designed to scupper her investigation into the R1,1billion Durban property deal. This was the way in which anti-apartheid activists reacted to "stratcom's" dirty tricks.

So, is there any correlation or similarities between "natcom" and "stratcom"?

Well, not exactly.

But it turns out that "natcom" is short for national commissioner.

As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Cheeky and ungrateful lot

Businesspeople who won lucrative tenders from the Ain't Seen Nothing Yet-run Hessequa Municipality in the Western Cape are an ungrateful lot.

After mayor Christopher Taute went to all the trouble to nicely ask 15 of them in "a friendly letter" to make a donation to the ANC ahead of the May 18 local government elections "in order to build on your relations with this ANC-run council", only three responded positively. But all they could manage between them was a paltry R2000.

One of the local businesspeople who received the "friendly letter" under the municipality's letterhead, even had the cheek to donate an undisclosed amount to the Godzille-De Lille Connection.

Was this perhaps the businesspeople's way of showing the mayor, who has since been rapped over the knuckles by the public protector for failing to differentiate between the state and the party, the middle finger?

It wasn't me

Credit must, however, go to the mayor for taking the public protector's harsh criticism on the chin.

He agrees it was "a mistake" to use the council's letterhead to solicit a donation for party political purposes.

But there is always someone to blame in these kind of things. This time it was "an inexperienced secretary", unnamed, who is accused of having attached Taute's electronic signature on the letter.

But the "inexperienced secretary" would not have attached the electronic signature if the "experienced" mayor did not cause the letter to exist in the first place.

There's always a fall guy in these kind of things.

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