Two Bits – 8 April 2016

Last week was filled with April Fool jokes and improbable but true stories, though it was hard to spot the difference. It’s probably true that newspaper stories are read with more care on April 1 than any other day of the year, just to check that we’re not having our leg pulled.
Our story of the wave machine was great fun to write, but I can’t think that it would have caught anybody out for more than a few seconds.
Some of our readers  thought that the desalination plant story was meant to be a joke, but no, it was not. Yes, the government is considering the possibility of a plant at La Mercy. Funny how in this drought people have been calling loudly for a plant, but when government listens and says ‘Okay, we’ll look into it,’ they say ‘No, we don’t want it’. At least not in our back yard, also known as the NIMBY syndrome. As we have reported in this paper frequently over the past year, it is widely believed that lack of water could become a major social problem in the future. Any plan that addresses water supply should not be dismissed out of hand.
The fire that nearly destroyed the Umvoti toll plaza garage has caused a major uproar in the fuel supply industry. This newspaper reported that fuel theft was suspected to have been the cause of it, and I hear the oil companies are investigating madly as to how it could have been happening right under their noses, without ringing alarm bells. They’re saying nothing, but I imagine it will come out when the culprits are dragged into court. It’s the old story – if it isn’t nailed down, you’d best keep a close eye on it.
And Friday night was the biggest April Fool’s joke of them all. JZ got everyone excited about his Address to the Nation, everyone secretly hoping he was about the ride off into the sunset and herd his cattle at Nkandla. No such luck.
After half an hour of poor excuses, blaming his lawyers for bad advice, blaming the Public Works officials, blaming everyone but himself, his weak apology was no apology at all.
In the wise words of William Shakespeare:
And oftentimes excusing of a fault
Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.
In other words, an apology with excuses is weasel words. Zuma lied when he said he had a bond, then he said he didn’t have to pay back what he hadn’t asked for, now he says he always meant to pay, it was just a little misunderstanding. He lies and thumbs his nose at us. He takes us for April Fools.
But his performance and the abject grovelling by Gwede Mantashe afterwards proves one thing: the ANC leadership is very, very worried about the fallout from Nkandla. It was the problem that they first tried to ignore, then tried to make go away, and now it has come back to bite them. In my mind the reason why they are worried is that there is one clear winner here: the opposition, in particular Julius Malema and the EFF.
Malema has scored big time with his no-compromise approach to both Parliament and President Zuma. His #PayBackTheMoney slogan captured the public imagination. Yes, the DA joined Malema in the application to the Constitutional Court, but he was first. Also the DA has been just too damned polite in the face of the loud opposition from the EFF. A little shoe-banging on the benches of Parliament would seems to produce more results than gentlemanly points of order.
On the up side, Chief Justice Moegeng Moegeng’s judgement in the Concourt was nothing short of brilliant. He showed us that the court is still independent and he gave immense support to the Public Protector. No more can the politicians treat Thuli Madonsela like a doormat. We can only pray that her successor is as brave as she.
And what does all this mean to us, down here at a local level? It means that if decisive leadership is lacking at a national level, there is all the more need for a strong hand on the wheel on the North Coast. We need ward and district councillors who are people of principle and conviction, who have their communities at heart, and who will not hesitate to right a wrong. We want representatives who will stand up for the people who gave them their jobs. We want leaders who will take responsibility for their actions.
But it’s not just about them. We need policemen and nurses and electricians and shopkeepers and labourers, ordinary people, to do what they believe is right. You don’t have to be popular. That’s not what life asks of you. It asks that you do the right thing. If everyone played their part, we would live in an area we would be proud of and an example to the rest of the country.

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When your first child eats some earth, a bit of grass or a worm, you take it to a doctor. When your second child eats some earth, a bit of grass or a worm, you spit on a hankie and clean it. When your third child eats some earth, a bit of grass or a worm, you wonder whether it still needs lunch.