MOWGLI would be a good choice of name for a boy these days, thinking of our current political environment which can only be described as a jungle. It’s overgrown and there are all sorts of ‘sssslithery’ things.
Remember Kaa, the python, in Walt Disney’s film version of The Jungle Book? “Trussssst in meeee,” the large snake hissed to our young, mesmerised hero, Mowgli.
And so are we all hypnotised by many of our current politicians – on all sides – into believing that they are people we can ‘trusssst’.
However, it’s awfully difficult. Take our proposed new mayor of Ugu District Municipality, Peggy Nkonyeni, for example. Many who have met her say she is a lovely lady and they are ecstatic that she is touted to be our new district Number One.
Peggy Nkonyeni when she was sworn in as the KwaZulu-Natal education ME. She is originally from Oshabeni on the South Coast. Here she takes the oath of office administered by Deputy Judge President Achmat Naaim Jappie during a swearing in ceremony in Durban.
Our other muncipality is named after her late, struggle icon husband Ray Nkonyeni (whose name was actually ‘Rey’).
One has to pity the master of ceremonies at joint municipal events: “Welcome to Ugu mayor Peggy Nkonyeni and Ray Nkonyeni mayor Cynthia Mqwebu… hhayi bo… have I got that right?”
For those not in the know (most people), Peggy, a former nurse, was Speaker in the KZN legislature before resigning after emerging on the wrong side of a bun fight in her party last year.
She also gained infamy by being implicated as an alleged ‘Amigo’ of the shady Uruguay businessman, Gaston Savoi, whose company supplied millions of rands worth of water purification and oxygen equipment to KZN Health.
Peggy was MEC for Health at the time, but charges against her were later dropped by the National Prosecuting Authority. Meanwhile, the case involving racketeering, corruption and fraud against others is still dragging on years down the line. (Justice is hardly swift in South Africa when it comes to politicians.)
So we have to give Peggy the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully she proves to be just the leader to plug the many, many… many leaks in Ugu’s water systems which are driving everyone to drink (alcohol).
But the many intrigues at play make it difficult to ‘trusssst’ any politician or their mouthpieces any more (excluding the Herald).
From a personal point of view, the Gupta-owned New Age and ANN7 TV are probably the most reliable sources.
YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN: Who was Ray Nkonyeni?
OF COURSE the Guptas were only trying to transport pistachios when an employee tried to board a flight at Firebrand Aviation’s VVIP terminal in Johannesburg recently!
As the Oppenheimers (of all people) own the service, one would have expected them to know the difference between nuts and diamonds. Pftttt!
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