Only in South Africa

Dear Fellow South Africans 

An American president once forgot which country he was in, embarrassing his hosts and his retinue. That's not unusual At the Zondo Commission, one of our able politicians could not remember his / her / their date of marriage, date of birth or whether,in fact, she was ever born.

That will never happen to me. I know that I am in South Africa. Only in South Africa can the following happen. On four or five consecutive occasions I've tried to deposit money at a specific ATM. Each attempt was unsuccessful. The marvel of technology was not working. I took to muttering a prayer under my breath each time I approached the machine. Of course, I'm delighted to pay a fee for depositing my own money inside. A bit like paying a parking fee at the KFC drive-through.

Even that delightful option was not available today. Someone, in a dizzying flash of inspired innovation, had deposited a coin in the machine. All deposits ceased. To my creditors: I tried. It was, in the succinct latin phrasing of one of our sharper legal eagles, a f@#$d up situation.

Then there's SABC news. Some fifteen minutes were spent on yet another internal ANC squabble over some god forsaken region. A spokesperson explained. It was as interesting as the speech at the Morticians' Society annual dinner I attended. Or the accountants' conference entitled 'A Passion For Balance Sheets'. This was as relevant as as a piece on the mating habits of frogs in Outer Mongolia. Just in case you haven't noticed, fellas, we are, as always, in the midst of a frenzy of looting, buffoonery and incompetence. But then, that's not really big news, is it? Not when compared to the high jinks and high stepping of our singing, dancing comrades.

So glad that they can always rely on you, SABC, for attentive coverage.

Yours in the fingernail breaking struggle to cling onto sanity in South Africa.

Richard

Tips for the blogger gratefully accepted 

Capitec Bank, South Africa  

1378565477

O Tichmann 

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