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All the dope on his royal highness

THE question about whether dagga should be legalised has exercised legal and medical minds for some time.

THE KING AND THE ZULU BOY

THE question about whether dagga should be legalised has exercised legal and medical minds for some time.

Vera possesses neither of these capacities. All she does is provide balanced political and social commentary. Believe it or not, it is balanced.

It is with this in mind that Vera took keen interest in the recent remarks made by one AbaThembu king Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo.

What interests Vera is not only the remarks - which have been trending on social networks - but the fact that Dalindyebo is a self-professed dagga smoker.

He is also a known advocate of secession from South Africa, which makes Vera wonder whether the kings would want to bring back the apartheid-era Republic of Transkei and all it represented in its segregated heydays while he was based in Lusaka, allegedly fighting for our liberation.

But it is his comments on Zuma that have got everybody worked up.

Not that what Dalindyebo said hasn't found resonance among some sections of the population... It is the manner in which he says it that compels Vera to comment about his dagga-smoking habits.

He believes Zuma uses ministers like condoms and then dumps them. "Because he [Zuma] flushes people like condoms, you know like [Tuesday]. What makes him think he can flush kings? Unfortunately, I would say the president has a habit of not condomising," said Dalindyebo outside Zuma's office at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

"We do not like people with that kind of attitude. His behaviour is indeed a shower mentality." Dalindyebo continued: "I cannot be ordered to come to his office, he must come to my office. I am king unto him, he's just a Zulu boy."

Before this diatribe, Dalindyebo threatened to join the DA because Zuma and the ANC were feeding on the dustbin of the Guptas.

Some of Dalindyebo's remarks have struck the chord because of the insulting manner in which they are delivered, but not because they are untrue.

Everyone knows Zuma's views about showers, condoms and that his supporters called him a Zulu boy during the rape trial. But it is the dagga that creates the fog in the mind of the king, which eventually makes him not consider other factors before he makes remarks that are like a mosquito on the skin of an elephant.

That's what his anger is to Zuma, who has become immune to literally anything that attacks him.

You have to give it to Zuma, the man who has his way of ducking a deadly virus and continue to amass as many wives as he possibly can.

DA-LI SAYS YEBO TO THE DA

Talking about the deadly virus, Vera wonders whether Dalindyebo's remarks aren't an extension of Helen Zille's views - that Zuma's sexual behaviour endangers his wives - which were regarded as an insult to the president.

Could it be that Dalindyebo joined the DA long ago? But then, Dalindyebo is a traditional leader who should be supporting Zuma's polygamous ways.

Should we be contemplating a change in DA's policy on polygamy?

What about the curry Zille enjoyed at the Guptas?

If Zuma and the ANC are feeding on the rubbish bin of the Guptas, can the same be said of Zille, who after enjoying a curry, allegedly pocketed a couple of thousands of rands from the Guptas.

And what if that money was used to make the DA look so good that Dalindyebo think its leaders don't feed on leftovers. These questions are difficult to answer because there is an intervening substance: dagga.

If Zuma's shower mentality impairs his judgment, Dalindeybo's dagga mentality loosens some of his mental bolts.

HAVE A PUFF OF PARANOIA

According to a certain website, many dagga users experience a turning point in dagga use when it ceases to become enjoyable and instead provokes paranoia and fear.

This is contrary to the submission to the Constitutional Court by Rastafarians , that dagga is a "God-given plant to be used for the healing of the nation".

The Rastafarians were arguing for the legalisation of dagga for religious reasons. The matter split the Constitutional Court judges into three groups.

In the end, the possession and smoking of dagga is a criminal offence in South Africa, although Dalindyebo boasts about smoking it. But if there is one man who has made the Constitutional Court decision look good, it is Dalindyebo himself.

Vera's question of the week: Will Julius Malema's party nationalise Transet?

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