Taking centre stage
Vera was happy to see the political maturity and tolerance that was displayed during the great Richard Maponya's funeral. Just a few decades ago, you could not have ANC leaders sharing the same stage with the IFP's Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi in Soweto.
Buthelezi and Maponya were long-time friends and it is wonderful that the retired IFP leader, for years regarded as "part of the enemy" in Soweto, was given an opportunity to pay his last respects to his great pal.
But did Inkosi yakwaPhindangene really have to print out his own speech, complete with pictures of himself and Maponya exchanging jokes at a function, and distribute it to the mourners as if the funeral was some political rally?
Time to say sorry
The speech itself was a beautiful tribute to a man who was a pioneer for the black business community. But it would not have been a Buthelezi speech if it did not have a sentence or two where he painted himself as a political victim. So the nonagenarian did not disappoint: "I remember many rallies I held in Soweto which Dr Maponya attended. This was at the height of the vilification campaign that was waged against me. At that time, many abandoned their open support for me..."
Dear ANC, give the elder closure by apologising for calling him names during those old bad days of Bantustans and apartheid.
Military veterans fatigue
Speaking of the ANC, anyone know what those chaps who wear military fatigues at party rallies and go about calling themselves "military veterans" actually do for a living?
Vera can't imagine that they spend most of their time training and practising how to form a guard of honour and carry the party's birthday cake as if it is a coffin of a guerilla felled in military combat.
Ideas more powerful than guns
Vera is glad to see finance minister Tito Mboweni has stopped using his Twitter account to act like a brand ambassador for Lucky Star Pilchards and Rwanda. He should leave Rwanda marketing to Arsenal FC because clearly that club no longer has interest in actually winning any meaningful match, let alone a title.
Anyway, Mboweni has been asking some thought-provoking questions of the ANC and its intentions for the Reserve Bank. But the comrades at Luthuli House are not impressed, reminding Mboweni that thinking aloud is counter-revolutionary and that all members are obliged to just sing the resolutions adopted at Nasrec.
Whispers of Stalinism, anyone?
Chewing the cud
Vera has decided she doesn't wish to emulate Robert Mugabe, who had to be removed from office, and will be joining her favourite politician in Nkandla on retirement where they will spend much of their time discussing the art of avoiding the courts and to dodge answering justice Raymond Zondo's questions.
As the man said, we will meet again, somewhere.
That's it, folks ... a sip by the firepool is calling
Taking centre stage
Vera was happy to see the political maturity and tolerance that was displayed during the great Richard Maponya's funeral. Just a few decades ago, you could not have ANC leaders sharing the same stage with the IFP's Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi in Soweto.
Buthelezi and Maponya were long-time friends and it is wonderful that the retired IFP leader, for years regarded as "part of the enemy" in Soweto, was given an opportunity to pay his last respects to his great pal.
But did Inkosi yakwaPhindangene really have to print out his own speech, complete with pictures of himself and Maponya exchanging jokes at a function, and distribute it to the mourners as if the funeral was some political rally?
Time to say sorry
The speech itself was a beautiful tribute to a man who was a pioneer for the black business community. But it would not have been a Buthelezi speech if it did not have a sentence or two where he painted himself as a political victim. So the nonagenarian did not disappoint: "I remember many rallies I held in Soweto which Dr Maponya attended. This was at the height of the vilification campaign that was waged against me. At that time, many abandoned their open support for me..."
Dear ANC, give the elder closure by apologising for calling him names during those old bad days of Bantustans and apartheid.
Military veterans fatigue
Speaking of the ANC, anyone know what those chaps who wear military fatigues at party rallies and go about calling themselves "military veterans" actually do for a living?
Vera can't imagine that they spend most of their time training and practising how to form a guard of honour and carry the party's birthday cake as if it is a coffin of a guerilla felled in military combat.
Ideas more powerful than guns
Vera is glad to see finance minister Tito Mboweni has stopped using his Twitter account to act like a brand ambassador for Lucky Star Pilchards and Rwanda. He should leave Rwanda marketing to Arsenal FC because clearly that club no longer has interest in actually winning any meaningful match, let alone a title.
Anyway, Mboweni has been asking some thought-provoking questions of the ANC and its intentions for the Reserve Bank. But the comrades at Luthuli House are not impressed, reminding Mboweni that thinking aloud is counter-revolutionary and that all members are obliged to just sing the resolutions adopted at Nasrec.
Whispers of Stalinism, anyone?
Chewing the cud
Vera has decided she doesn't wish to emulate Robert Mugabe, who had to be removed from office, and will be joining her favourite politician in Nkandla on retirement where they will spend much of their time discussing the art of avoiding the courts and to dodge answering justice Raymond Zondo's questions.
As the man said, we will meet again, somewhere.