July Morning

Dear Mr Sitole

Great performance at the SAHRC commission. 

I like the subtle distinction you made between not wrong / right and true. 

(Regarding the allegation that you were nowhere to be found during the July unrest)

 "It may not be wrong but it is not true."

Deep, philosophical stuff, sir. Reminded me of Pilate's "What is truth?" I think I can dimly see where you were going. Example: it's true that some services are dismally led, but it's not right. Am I on the right track, sir?

Like a good police commissioner, you led us, Sherlock Holmes fashion, through the keys and clues to the mystery of your  whereabouts. I have tried to unravel the matter as carefully as one may analyse a many-layered Shakespeare text. 

Here, South Africa, is what happened:

1. A person might have been looking for Mr Sitole

2.That person might not have found him

3. Because that person might have been looking in the wrong place

4. Where he wasn't 

I think that Uriah Heep foresaw this event - their song, July Morning (almost untouched):

There I was on a July morning 

I was looking for him..

I was looking for him in the strangest places

There wasn't a stone that I left unturned

I must have tried more than a thousand places

But no-one was aware of the fire that burned..

But, of course, they were the wrong places. You'd think people would know to look for a national commissioner in the right place. 

 

"But everyone who was looking for me during the unrest found me and could access me. Secondly, starting with my phone, it was on and I confirm it was not on silent."

I think you meant everyone except the misguided souls above, their mournful cries, I imagine, echoing eerily. Instead of just calling you on your mobile. Maybe the horrendous airtime costs..

Sir, it gets a bit murky further on and I think you should have stopped earlier.

"And the whole communication system of SAPS that is activated during an operation was activated and no one was found to be looking for me. Even the community [CPFs through a community activation plan], could access me and we communicated."

You don't see a teeny contradiction? 

Then again, you concluded quite nicely and succinctly:

"I don’t want to dispel the fact that there might have been people who were looking for me but all those who were looking for me at the right place did find me." 

Couldn't be clearer.

Yours in the struggle for crystal clear communication.

Richard 

Tips for the blogger gratefully accepted 

Capitec Bank, South Africa  

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