* Did you know that Japan does not have any natural resources and they are exposed to hundreds of earthquakes a year, but this has not prevented her from becoming the second largest economy in the world! Also in Japan, the rate of delayed trains in the whole year is only seven seconds! They appreciate the value of time and are punctual to minutes and seconds.
* The Town Hall clock is on the blink again. Are you surprised? Does this municipality ever repair anything to last forever, or does it create more jobs for more people? The resurfacing of Murchison Street between King and Princess Street (in front of Autohaus) is being done in such a slipshod manner that the contractors are actually creating potholes. The idiots did not make provision for the recessed manhole lids! In the CBD, the pavements were resurfaced amid much hullabaloo in quaint-coloured paving slabs.
They are now falling apart. If one municipality digs a trench to repair a burst pipe, the other municipality will take its grandfather’s time to refill. And even when they do, you can bet your last underpants’ elastic that the pipe will burst within a few metres from the original repaired job. Furthermore, the burst water pipe will more often than not be repaired late at night.
* Why is it that whenever one tries to reach a municipal official, he / she is in a meeting? How many meetings do these officials attend? Does anything positive come out of these lengthy meetings? Maybe the municipality should change its name to meeting-to-see-pal-ity.
* uThukela’s newly-appointed Senior Water Services manager, Mr Smange Shange, got a taste of the problem his department has inherited when the pipe in Agra Road burst last week. What is disturbing is the fact that Leonardsville was without water from six in the morning to almost midnight – some 18 hours. And during that time, there was not a single water tanker to alleviate the plight of rate-paying residents. Why? Water tankers are justifiably stationed in rural areas that don’t have potable water. But why wasn’t one drawn from one of those areas to come to Leonardsville?
According to our conversation, Mr Shange was apparently in a meeting (yip, another meeting) when he was informed of that burst pipe. None of his team informed him of the gravity of the situation. Therefore, at 4.20pm, he telephonically requested a water tanker. Guess what? The tanker never arrived. Either the tanker driver cast a snoot at Mr Shange or Mr Shange does not possess the authority he ought to have. Furthermore, during our conversation, I learnt that the valve at that particular section does not operate.
There have been so many burst pipes on that corner it is incomprehensible that no one bothered to replace / repair the valve. What the f#&k are they waiting for? Another burst mains to get them to move like blue-arsed flies looking for valves?
* The US, UK and France, along with the UN, have condemned the brief abduction of Libya’s PM and pledged their support for its transition to democracy. US Secretary of State John Kerry called the act “thuggery”. Ali Zeidan was abducted from a Tripoli hotel and held for several hours by armed militiamen. What a laudable gesture for democracy! But their silence was deafening when it came to Mr Mohamed Morsi’s abduction in Egypt.
Mr Morsi was democratically elected by the majority of Egyptian voters, but obviously Egyptian democracy does not fit in with the US, UK, France or their lapdog, the UN’s democratisation process. To add insult to injury, the US suspended the delivery of large-scale military systems and cash support to Egypt. The US says it will continue to hold the delivery of certain large-scale military systems and cash assistance to the government pending credible progress towards an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government through free and fair elections. Hello… Mr Mohamed Morsi was democratically elected, but obviously he was not the puppet the US wanted.
* Here’s wishing Muslim readers a blessed Eid-ul-Adha!
