LAST week at the airport on my return to Johannesburg from a business trip in Kimberley I found myself sitting next to Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor in the public departure hall.

LAST week at the airport on my return to Johannesburg from a business trip in Kimberley I found myself sitting next to Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor in the public departure hall.

She was friendly and chatted comfortably.

I wish Helen Zille had been there to witness this because sometimes politicians are portrayed in a negative light, particularly by the opposition, and we all fall for it.

You could see that this was not a stage-managed thing because there were no cameras to capture her interaction and use of public facilities without bodyguards and so on.

On arrival we jumped on to a bus with the minister to the arrivals hall and she went through like everyone else.

One woman told me she recently saw Pandor doing grocery shopping with her family in Pretoria without security personnel. She was apparently driving herself around Hatfield, Pretoria.

I say a big thumbs up to Pandor, but she must not overdo it and compromise her safety.

Wayne Cashan, Randburg