A TALE OF TWO MEMBERS

I was interested to learn that former crime boss, alleged fraudster and purveyor of nepotistic favour, Richard (I needn't remind you of the shortened version of the name) Mdluli, is on sick leave suffering from emotional stress. This could be the reason why he is so often seen behind sunglasses.

But my interest was really piqued by the fact that if this is true, certain investigations may be getting close to the bone forcing the embattled soul into hiding. Whatever the reason, it seems this artful dodger doesn't want to be seen officially hanging around at present - in the way his esteemed friend and crony has been doing on canvas of late looking not unlike an aloe in full, virile bloom albeit somewhat wilted.

Speaking of which, that dangling member has given not a little offence to the ruling party (an organisation of delicate sensitivity when it suits) whose presidential spokesperson, Mac Maharaj (he of fox terrier proclivities), was 'amazed' at how the artist (God bless him) denigrated the holy 'person and office of the president'.

How a self-enriching humbug can be denigrated escapes me - as it did obviously City Press editor Ferial Haffajee who, with a swift kick to the genitalia in question, was reported saying the esteemed president has done more to impugn his own dignity than any artist ever could. It seems like vitriol and vilification run like water off rogues' backs but humiliation - that is clearly another matter.

All this fiasco might just suggest some hope for South Africa at Mangaung - and I cannot wait for Zapiro's take on the spear of destiny.

FREEDOM DAY - A TIMELY REMINDER

Yesterday, Freedom Day brought back a memory that in 1994 I stood in a rural queue between Addo and Uitenhage waiting to cast my vote in the historic 1994 elections. Those in the queue were ebullient with hope for what they imagined would be a golden age for South Africa.

As you can imagine, it was a colourful queue of all shapes, sizes and hues. The line was unbelievably long but the people were patient, respectful and amiable. One chap, who said he originally hailed from the Western Cape, had us in paroxysms of laughter while he regaled us with superb jokes, none of which were political nor intended to be. An old man, a few metres in front of me, had to sit down because he couldn't control his laughter.

I think the comedian's name was Bennie, but it doesn't really matter because he served as the entertainer for all who could hear him. Those just out of vocal reach tried to compress the queue to get closer to Bennie's performance and, like a good performer needing to reach his whole audience, Bennie moved up and down the queue to ensure as many as possible enjoyed the hilarious entertainment. He knew he was good but it wasn't ego driving his performance. He just wanted to make people laugh and asked for nothing in return.

During Bennie's intermissions, there was always chatter, people talking to each other, smiling and laughing, something they had been unable to do for forty years. They were just a bunch of good, ordinary people.

Immediately behind me was an elderly black mama with a toddler on her back. I asked her where she lived and she shyly told me that it was a township not far from Addo. I was curious as to how she had arrived at the polling station and she explained that a taxi had brought her as far as the tarred road and she had walked the rest of the way. I knew the junction she referred to and estimated that she must have walked about 10 km with the toddler on her back. She had come because she had rightfully expected a promising life to open up for her after the oppression of apartheid. And the journey to get to the polling station had been in no way daunting.

Hope was palpable in that queue of people. Mandela was a fine statesman who would right the evils of apartheid and provide a prosperous and happy life for all South Africa's citizens. And so it was - to begin with.

But the hopes of my queue have been dashed by the sleazy rogues who now hold sway. 

I am comforted, though, with the thought that the people in that queue haven't changed. They are still good people who will stop for a chat, a joke and a laugh. They are the backbone of South Africa - the grass roots. They are a universe apart from their politicians.

GWEDE MANTASHE - DICTATOR IN THE MAKING

Politicsweb columnist David Bullard took unerring aim this morning at one of our up and coming closet dictators, ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe, in his column entitled 'Show Comrade Godfather some respect ... or else!' - http://bit.ly/IUNT0h. If the glove fits, wear it, and it certainly does for the vilifying and magniloquent Mantashe. 

'Bully-in-chief' is a deserved and apt term to describe what Mantashe does. He is one of those ranting bullies (the type which is becoming disturbingly more prevalent in the ANC) who believes, it seems, that a democracy should be run by an authoritarian party and robust debate roundly discouraged as being of not much consequence. His recent ad hominem, and almost savage, verbal attacks against Nedbank chair Reuel Khoza for berating the ANC (deservedly) as a strange breed of leaders is a case in point. Admitting the current folly of his party would have made a favourable impression on his opponents - and Khoza. Instead, he foolishly and not surprisingly chose to defend the untenable. He is of the type which, when they're unable to command respect, begin demanding it.

People of this ilk are probably what Reuel Khoza referred to as a strange breed of leadership. They are dangerous and won't serve the interests of the country or its people. Mantashe, as his recent behaviour suggests, is someone who, if given half a chance, could turn into a full-blown dictator.

NEDBANK CHIEF WARNS AGAINST CORRUPT AND INCOMPETENT ANC JUGGERNAUT

Chairman of Nedbank and respected former academic, Reuel Khoza, warned in the bank's annual report that South Africa is widely recognised for its liberal and enlightened Constitution yet the emergence of a strange breed of leaders can be observed who are determined to undermine the rule of law and override it. 

The now inveterately corrupt and incompetent ANC, whose goal is unquestionably to remain in power for further self-enrichment through insidious means, has already announced plans to review the judiciary and the Constitution citing the reappraisal of the latter as necessary to remove  hindrances to social and economic transformation. And the 'ruling party, as they prefer to be called, is about to promulgate changes to the Protection of Information Bill that will seriously hamper investigative efforts of journalists to openly publish incriminating material. Their unstated purpose is clear to any intelligent observer: increase, by whatever means, ways to avoid detection so that corruption may continue apace and line the pockets of a venal cabal with filthy lucre.

Khoza's comments are timely and are the first by a chairman of a JSE-listed banking group since the government began announcing its 'review' strategies.

Khoza warned that the country's political leadership moral quotient is degenerating and that the nation is fast losing the checks and balances that are necessary to prevent a recurrence of the past. 

Writing on his website about the Constitution, Khoza says 'The problem I have with the revision of the existing Constitution is not over the principle that it should be revisited but over the credibility of those who are making these proposals. The editor of of the Financial Mail, Barney Mthombothi, recently wrote that when Mandela and Mbeki made changes to the Constitution it was not with any ill-intent but to make it better. This new lot is different. They don't want to change the Constitution. They want to gut it, to remove its entrails and thus change the trajectory of society.'

Reuel Khoza understands and knows the value of informed and visionary leadership. He has spent much of his life illustrating and demonstrating its key elements and what he is now called on to witness no doubt sickens him to the core. I hope other business leaders will follow his example by bringing the incumbent rogue leadership into the spotlight to reveal all its  inglorious ugliness.

GUGU AND KGALEMA

Well, it could be that our deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe and his statuesque, attractive partner, the delightful Ms Gugu Mtshali, may not be so cool after all. Alleged failed attempts to raid a R104 million cookie jar won't, of course, free you of guilt. As the worms crawl out of the can our usually unflappable and phlegmatic DP has called in the redoubtable Thuli Madonsela to crush them with Doom or whatever else is near at hand. He has, after all, an image to uphold. Not that lampoonist par excellence, Zapiro, would agree. http://mg.co.za/zapiro/fullcartoon/3638/

MALEMA - TIP OF AN ENDEMICALLY CORRUPT ICEBERG

City Press journalists Adriaan Basson and Xolani Mbanjwa today revealed that expelled ANC Youth League President Julius Malema is a Gucci millionaire and not 'poor' as he claims. 

They stated that in 2010 alone, different donors deposited more than R3 million into Malema's Ratanang Family Trust, currently the subject of an investigation by crime unit, the Hawks. More than R2 million of the deposits were made in cash.

Basson and Mbanjwa added that two recipients of money from Malema's trust were Gucci clothing and the five-star Twelve Apostles hotel in Cape Town.

Not bad trappings for a man who claims he lives on handouts and champions the poor. But the disturbing aspect about this information is that it reveals only the tip of an endemically corrupt iceberg. 

South Africa's citizenry are victims of a self-enriching rogue government bent on stuffing their pockets with filthy lucre but pretending otherwise. They have become shamelessly two-faced in achieving their venal ends and anything they say is no longer credible.

THE GREAT PRETENDER - TYRANT IN THE MAKING

There is always abundant irony surrounding whatever Julius Malema says.

Today, this magniloquent mampara said to a poor, undiscriminating audience that respect will be earned only in the way one treats one's comrades. The irony, of course, is that he uses his current suspension from the ANC to cast himself as a victim in the eyes of the poor - as one who deserves respect - carefully avoiding to tell them he essentially has no interest in their welfare but only seeks to grow his own ill-gotten gains.

This is a dangerous political rabble-rouser of Hitlerian proportions who, if allowed to have his way, will wreak unprecedented destruction in this country. In a government of rogues, bent on protecting and growing their own mammon there is already enough to contend with and this country doesn't need, added to the morally depraved mix, a tyrant in the making blowing hot air to a gullible populace.