Transformation

 Good news for the Christian church in South Africa.

There is a massive spiritual awakening among honourable members. They are attending church services in droves. Even leading singing and preaching inspirational sermons. 

Who better than those who have lived shining lives of humble service to the people?  In whose mouths a lie dare not dwell. Whose fingers have never caressed a ten rand note earned dishonestly. I wish that I could attend such services. Just the notion raises the gooseflesh on my arms. Could this be the longed-for revival? Surely things are looking up for South Africa (as our honourable leaders look up for guidance).

There will be testimonies of the miraculous, for example, the transformation of South Africa from a colonized mess to the  people's paradise that it now is. What do you mean: what paradise? Do we not have more billionaires than ever before? Do we not have promises of smart cities and bullet trains? Do we not have Tintswalo and state hospitals that rival anything that private health can produce? Did not Mr Malatji, ANC Youth Leader, tell us that the ANC pays us for being born, living, schooling and more? What do you mean, you haven't been paid? Contact Mr Malatji without delay, with your banking details. And PAYE number.

Cynics and unbelievers may retort that all this spirituality coincides suspiciously with election season. What can be done about the unbelieving heart? I suppose it will, like the poor, be with us always. To them I say: the Lord works in mysterious ways. Mr 

Mbalula said " the church is integral to our work". I am confident that we will see this flood of spirituality unleashed post 29 May  - a kinder, gentler South Africa. Can't wait.

So great has been the outpouring, that some MK supporters confused Mr Zuma with a saviour. These things happen in the throes of religious ecstasy.

So moved was I that I sought out some biblical verses appropriate to the time. I found these, purely by happenstance (or divine guidance?).

I trust that our leaders, wise always and freshly inspired, will unravel the significance of these verses for us:

"Show me a righteous ruler and I will show you a happy people. Show me a wicked ruler and I will show you a miserable people".

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Dark Days

Remember when the president said that we should look on the bright side of loadshedding?  

An oxymoron if ever I heard one. A friend said that it was uttered by a ...., but I stopped him before he could go any further. 

This was of the 'your broken leg is hurting now, but you'll appreciate it all the more when it's healed' school of philosophy.

I do think that South Africans should appreciate Eskom more. They've torn us away from television and the plethora of electronic gadgets around us. We have time to Be Present. Time to contemplate the meaning of life  - under ANC rule  - for five more long years.

A gentleman in our area clearly felt that Eskom was not doing enough. In a bout of public-spiritedness, he crashed his car into an electrical substation. This was after a bout with spirits in a public bar. We then had most of Sunday to give over to quiet contemplation of matters spiritual. Quality time spent, we eventually had about an hour of power. Then Eskom came to the party. After all, they couldn't very well leave loadshedding to the public, could they? They had to play their part. Two hours of planned loadshedding followed. We were pleased that it was an organized session this time round. 

Watching 'Chasing the Sun 2' later, one couldn't help but wish that the politicians worked half as hard as the Springboks at tackling the giants that make life in South Africa miserable. But they are out of shape, intellectually, morally, ethically. Many of them do not even know what the game is, let alone have the skills or stomach to play it. The time is long past for them to leave the field to those who can. Unfortunately, they have a large following who know even less about the game and often mistake posturing for performance.

Unless there is a great awakening, the minister of electricity will dance on and the energy minister will growl and mumble on. Only the lights will not go on.

We will continue to sit in quiet contemplation. In darkness.

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The Wisdom of Collen Malatji

ANC Youth League leader Collen Malatji says “the ANC pays you for being born, pays you for living, pays you to go to school, pays you to go to university and gives your mother water and electricity”.

Dear Mr Malatji

I see that I have been horribly shortchanged. Could I please have my payment now for being born. I have checked my Capitec savings account several times since reading your uplifting message, but, so far, nothing, nada. dololo. Are you sure that you guys have the correct account details? I've included them below, just in case your database is not up to date. That would be a surprise as we all know that ANC spells efficiency.

As for being paid for living, had I known that, I would not have slaved to stay just over broke for so many years. I suppose that the large chunks that SARS hewed out of my salary were for that purpose. I'd like to collect now, please, having lived almost three score years and ten. Where do I sign up? Not Home Affairs or Labour, I hope, as I've also spent a goodly portion of those years queuing at those fine establishments. Often to no avail, as the staff have to go home sometime.

Yes, I'll be pleased to be paid for my school years. They were boring in the extreme and of little value in the real world. Bartholomew Diaz, his fascinating sea voyages notwithstanding, was not helpful in the acquisition of jobs, loans or anything really useful. Now had we been thoroughly schooled in technical skills, things would have been very different. I refer to the life skills that make the world go round. A practical, useful syllabus would have included:

* Strategies and tactics for life without water and electricity 

* How to make, keep, switch and discard friends in high, political places and low lucrative places

* Starting your own political party for profit

* Living off the fat of the land in lean times

And much more of the good stuff

Adding insult to injury, we did not have the benefit of being allowed to pass some subjects with a 30 percent score. I don't see why not. Some of the thirty percenters are managing our country quite efficiently - aren't they?

I paid back my university loan with interest.  Why did those cunning bankers not tell me that it had already been paid by the ANC? I plan to sue them just as soon as I can get hold of Mr Mpofu. I think he's done with that futil..., I mean, difficult case for Mr Zuma.

As for water and electricity for my mother, she has passed on, but I certainly could do with some water and electricity for myself. There's not been much of either, though you couldn't tell that from the  bills, which are remarkably regular and consistent.

I know that the ANC has itself had some trouble with bills (for wages, suppliers etc.) but I'm very pleased that they've not been tempted to dip into their fund that "pays you for being born, pays you for living, pays you to go to school, pays you to go to university and gives your mother water and electricity”. 

That's integrity.

Yours in the struggle to ensure that voters are grateful for ALL that the ANC does.

Richard 

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Vladimir, Well Done!

Dear Mr Putin

Congratulations on winning a tough, grinding election battle. That was close.

I am satisfied that your elections are as free and fair as the ones held in Zimbabwe. 

I understand that the other three candidates gave you a run for your money. Our ANC government is facing opposition from some two hundred or so parties (we don't play here). Fortunately, their supporters are just as blindly..., pardon, solidly, loyal as yours. It's something to see unforced loyalty based on affection, respect and recognition of a track record of integrity,  honourable behaviour and competence. 

It's admirable that you were able to soldier on despite the death of Mr Navalny, which must have weighed heavily on your mind. What with your being that rare creature  - the sensitive, caring statesman. You remind me so of our own Mr Zuma, who is all for corporal punishment and other enlightened reforms.

I noticed that a few people, carried away by the euphoria of participating in free and fair elections, ruined ballot boxes and set stuff on fire. I'm sure that this was all just in high election spirits. You know: voters will be voters. Suspended sentences and some meaningful community service should sort that out. I'm thinking, clearing snow and ice, healthy outdoors work - that sort of thing.

We, too, have had some high jinks by politicians and public figures that went too far. All the way to commissions of inquiry, for example. We elected not to take a primitive, punitive approach. (We're way past that sort of medieval thinking). Instead, we redeployed, promoted, supported, in a cutting edge approach to discouraging criminality and fostering responsibility and accountability. To my knowledge, it's been a stunning success. We have people alleged to have been villains, scoundrels and out and out rotters now in many positions of high responsibility. One should never write rotte..., I mean, people, off. Does one's heart good to see the most modern reform and correction initiatives in action. I have no doubt that we will soon taste the fruits of our reform initiatives. Perhaps just as soon as our parliamentary speaker returns from special leave and we defeat loadshedding (which should be anytime soon  - or just now, as we say in South Africa).

So, I trust, Mr Putin, that you will take a leaf out of our African book, just as we have often done with yours. After all, are we not both important, impactful actors on the global stage? There you are, striving to bring peace and harmony to various parts of the world, using every means at your disposal: diplomacy, drones, rockets, mercenaries. And here we are, er, doing our best. Incidentally, our minister of defence said that we supplied you with fokol when your ship docked here. With all the demands being made on your military and other personnel, you may be running low by now. Please know that we have an inexhaustible supply of fokol to give and your ships are welcome any dark night.

Yours in the struggle for free and fair elections, even when outcomes are pre-determined.

Richard 

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Scuffle On, MK

How did I come to have dozens of MK followers on TikTok?

I was praised as a wise man, a legend and other honorifics that would have had me blushing, were I still able to blush.

The reason for this outpouring of praise? This excerpt from a blog post:

'Dear Mr Zuma

My heartfelt thanks for your wisdom and guidance.  I was on the verge of making a terrible mistake at the polling station. 

I understand that you said that a vote for the ANC is a vote for WMC.  Now, I mistakenly thought that a vote for the DA was a vote for WMC.  Ah,  but now I see it clearly. A vote for The DA is a vote for apartheid.  Thank you for making that clear distinction. It would be a terrible thing to think that one had made one's mark for WMC only to find later that it was actually a vote for apartheid...'

(The Scuffle Continues : Seeing The Light: https://thescuffle.blogspot.com/2023/12/seeing-light.html)

A (very) few readers did read between the bull and awarded me a 'fuseg' and 'msu@#$$' or two. These I promptly 'liked', as is my custom.

I expect many more fusegs and msu@#$$s once the realization dawns that the video was not exactly a paen of praise for the Dancing One. 

This raises some interesting questions and thoughts.

Do many South Africans simply cherry pick whatever suits their ideology or theology, without engaging 'drive' upstairs? This could explain the worship of political idols with feet of very fragile clay.

Are irony and satire lost on many of our people? That could explain why rogues and charlatans get so many rides on the merry- go-round. Particularly when they should have left the playground with tails firmly tucked between legs.

Yeats wrote that:

Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.

In South Africa, Mr Yeats, we could cannabilise that to:

Heads with one thought alone

Through summer and winter seem

Enchanted to a block of wood

To trouble the living stream.

I quote, for the umpteenth time, because it seems proved time and again:

'If George Orwell had written 2020 in South Africa:

The party's ever-present slogans fluttered proudly from deserted dairy farms, vandalized railway stations and scorched public buildings:

INCOMPETENCE IS HEROISM

DECAY IS PROGRESS

BULLSHIT IS TRUTH....'

(The Scuffle Continues : 2020: https://thescuffle.blogspot.com/2020/12/2020_21.html)

In South Africa, the satire not only writes itself, but, like good manure, grows richer, riper and darker daily.

Here's to my many temporary MK followers!

Viva comrades, viva!

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The Land That Commonsense Forgot

 Dear Jeff

I read the draft of your book, as promised. Interesting title: The Land That Commonsense Forgot'.

You asked me to be brutally honest with you. 

The part about the liberation struggle and the triumph over oppression made good, inspirational reading. 

I also enjoyed your satirical treatment of the descent into chaotic corruption and decay. Echoes of Orwell's 'Nineteen-Eighty-Four', complete with the tortured reasoning and language of the Party. I think that your treatment of the liberation from commonsense of government, politicians and people was nothing short of brilliant. Corrupt politicians treated as heroes, buffoons feted like pop stars, incompetents promoted to the highest positions in the land - the humour is deliciously dark. It's also quite disturbing and I couldn't help wondering what benighted country you based this story on.

Here's the brutal part. Jeff, you can't expect readers to believe that a country was sold to a foreign family over a few curries. I know that there's suspension of disbelief, but that's asking too, too much. Then there are other really bizarre episodes that no publisher will let ride. Really - medicine carried by head, a trip to Geneva that somehow bypasses Switzerland, political parties that resemble rogues' galleries and circus troupes, the far-fetched slapstick around electricity and water supply! Above all, there are two aspects that I urge you to remove, if you don't want the book to sink without trace. Not even the worst buffoonocracy in the world would spend millions on a commission into treasonous corruption and racketeering and then allow the accused to frolic in high and low places. What on earth were you smoking when you cobbled that up? (I did warn you about Durban's finest). Then there's also the bit about the very senior parliamentarian swanning off on special leave in the midst of investigations into very serious allegations. That doesn't happen. People resign.

If you remove those bits, I believe that your book will do very well. It has to be believable. The odd stretching of the boundaries of credibility is to be expected in a fiction novel, but this.....

If you do not, your family may well buy your book and praise it to you. In all likelihood, they'll be saying privately: "What a load of unbelievable codswallop."

Harsh, I know, but that's the brutal truth.

Best of luck.

Yours in the struggle to publish.

Richard 

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Reddy - Willing and Able

Dear Mr Visvin Reddy

People are so wicked and irresponsible.

But then you know that already, don't you?Apparently, devious persons unknown tampered with your speech, somehow editing the video.

I believe you. I do not know you but you look the sort of mature, reasonable type who wouldn't spew out that sort of horse manure. I don't know much about the law but it all sounded rather threatening and bordering on, or crossing over into, incitement to violence. Talk of civil war and preventing South Africans from voting! You do know, of course, that that makes less sense than a bout of flatulence. No, I don't see any grown man embarrassing himself and his family with such mindless gibberish. So clearly, someone tampered with your video.

They made your speech sound like a very badly dubbed version of something Mussolini would have done on a bad, babelas day. With some malemarisms thrown in. Or something that a would-be school bully, cum clown, with a juvenile craving for attention, would do. I just don't see you spewing out that vile stuff on a public platform. Especially not in the name of umKhonto weSisu...., sorry Sizwe. (By the by, I have an Afrikaans speaking friend who insists on pronouncing umKhonto quite differently. I don't know if it's a real word that he uses, or what it means. It just sounds rather odd).

You have my empathy. I was once in the same leaky boat. A very irritating fellow was running down that fine crime fighter,  Mr Cele. I responded that I would fix it up. Do you know what they did? They edited my speech and substituted a different f verb.

 Fortunately during my court appearance, (for threatening violence, of all things!) I had several character witnesses who testified.

that I never swear. WTF,  I was properly brought up. I am sure that you could call up a host of witnesses of unimpeachable character and integrity. Mr. Zuma and Dr Ace are but two examples. Incidentally, I know that Mr Cele himself would have responded with dignity and restraint. You wouldn't get him yelling out stuff like 'Sharrap, Sharrap!' Good heavens, the man's a cabinet minister.

I do hope that the people who did this are arrested and get their just deserts. Sir, I think that, in the meantime, you should lie really low. Perhaps lower than a snake's belly. Sinister persons are probably following you around, just waiting for you to say something innocent like: 'Have a nice day'. Just so that they can record you and twist it into something ugly or as stupid as that edited speech. I think stick to sign language in public (just watch out for ambiguous gestures).

I don't know who 'they' are - yet.  I'm sure that they are the same lot who edited Mr. Malema's 'die forZuma'  into 'kill for Zuma'. And messed with Mr Mbalula's speeches to make him sound silly. Which, of course, he isn't. A trifle peculiar at times, yes, but not silly. Certainly not a clown.

It's a wicked world that we live in. People who have no business opening their mouths in public, polluting the atmosphere. People who should know better, breathing fire and slaughter, when we most need common sense and sensible solutions to our challenges. Then we have some, running around, editing fine, inspirational speeches.  Making them sound like the garbage  dumped on the streets of Durban recently.  I would sue them dry.  You might want to contact MERDE (Mann Enterprise for Resolution of Dire Emergencies) for assistance in this regard. We have a BBBEE rating (Bloody Bad, Bold, Enterprising Etters). My banking details are below and you can contact me via EFT.

You started your speech with 'Hear me carefully'. Nice touch. Reminiscent of your great leader's venture into creative numeracy ('Listen carefully: seven hundred million thousand and twenty hundred thousand...). A wise man emulates other wise men.

Yours in the struggle against shadowy manipulators of video material. Onward to the ballot box! 

Richard 

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