SOME post arrived for me at work the other day. A nice envelope with a stamp of Solomon Linda on it.
I also noticed, with some concern, that the letter looked ‘official’ but we’ll get back to that in a moment.
Solomon Linda, also known as Solomon Ntsele, was a South African Zulu musician, singer and composer of the song ‘Mbube’.
This later became the popular music success ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’, which anyone who has watched the Lion King should know.
Right, back to that letter.
There was red lettering under my name, in capital letters, saying NOTICE/KENNISGEWING.
Two things struck me. One, this was from the traffic department (never good) and two, documentation is still done in Afrikaans?
I knew then that it was a speeding fine. I ripped open the envelope, hoping that it was the wife who had incurred the wrath of the law.
She is known for flat-footing it at times, a skill she learnt from her father and two brothers.
It wasn’t for her.
No, in fact, it was my sister’s mother-in-law who had picked up the fine, quite a surprise for someone who is more like the tortoise than the hare.
An even bigger surprise was that it was not at the usual spot just south of the Port Shepstone Regional Hospital, near Port Shepstone High, where the cops love to hide in the foliage, like we don’t know they’re there.
In fact, it was a little further south, near the Oslo Beach park.
The car used to belong to my sister, but was purchased many years ago, in my name. Her mother-in-law now zips about in it, a feisty red rocket, Opel Corsa. Really, I thought it had been transferred into the sister’s name, but obviously not.
Granny O, as we call my sister’s mother-in-law, is a stickler for rules, fair play and discipline. She’s a former school teacher, famous for her no-nonsense approach, and is also the church organist.
For her to be breaking the law in such fashion is simply outrageous. Turns out she was gunning it 71km/h in a 60km/h zone.
The fine is all of R100, but I told my brother-in-law (Granny O’s son) that it was R1000, hoping to make a profit. No, just kidding.
He couldn’t believe it. “Surprised the door didn’t fall off at that speed,” he said. “Probably still in first gear, too!”
So I guess the moral of the story is that if a responsible granny can’t resist the urge to pretend to be taking on Lewis Hamilton, then what chance do the rest of us have.
No wait, let’s try that again. In a day and age where road safety issues are often in the spotlight, we should do our best to obey the rules of the road.
That’s better. Happy motoring.
