Saturday morning July 26. Just been to the Gonubie Spar and noticed a 4×4 DJC 433 EC (no disabled parking sticker) parked on the space reserved for our unfortunate members of public. There were three kids inside the vehicle so I naturally assumed that none of them were asked to assist the invalid driver.

But what bugged me further was the advertising sticker on the vehicle’s rear window. It was for The Ugly Duckling concert presented by the East London Youth Ballet group. Obviously very healthy people.

And don’t tell me that, because there were passengers inside the vehicle, it is okay to quickly park on a disabled space. Even if there were other parking spots , the disabled find it very difficult to maneuvre their wheelchairs out of vehicles in the more narrow parking spaces. Doesn’t it make sense? Obviously not for this selfish driver.

Thank goodness someone with brains have at last spoken out against Parliament’s Affirmative Action racist Butana Komphela, who has taken over the mantle from Eugene Terre Blanche and other rightwing crazies.

Komphela, who has this continuous crazy urge (physically or mentally) to make an arse of himself, has now for the first time been rebuked by someone who matters (meaning present company excluded). If you remember, past gaffes by Komphela included taking away the (Australian!) passport of rugby coach Eddie Jones, who assisted Jake White during the run up to the Rugby World Cup. Fortunately a sane person in the Home Affairs department noted that Komphela’s suggestion was illegal. (Not that that has stopped some MPs from doing what they have been doing.)

This time Parliament’s clown, unless you want to diagnose Mr Komphela more seriously, accused Sascoc (the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee) of being ”full of whites and Indians who don’t understand transformation and lack vision”.

Sascoc president Moss Mashishi immediately reacted and called the clown’s remarks slanderous and racist. Had I said it, I would have been labelled a racist.

The sad thing about it is that Mr Mashishi had been forced to say this during the South Africa-Denmark Davis Cup tennis tie at the gaming resort on the outskirts of OR Tambo International Airport. Sad that overseas sports personalities have to be subjected to this kind of internal strife – although I commend Mashishi for taking a stand.

And even more commendable was Mashishi’s statement that Sascoc will in future not have any dealings with parliament’s sport portfolio committee as long as it was chaired by Komphela. Good for you Mr Mashishi!

Yes, at first I wanted to vomit. Then came a bit of anger, which was soon replaced by pity that a single chip on one man’s so called middle class shoulders could cause him to spew so much bile. I am talking about the Daily Dispatch column today (Thursday) written by the renowned author of one short work of fiction, Sandile Memela, who otherwise during office hours masquerades as a spokesperson for the Ministry of Arts & Culture.

Why the pity for him? Well from his column it is clear that to live up to his middle class status Memela unwillingly is being dragged to attend corporate functions, which he says are hosted by whites. He (remember he’s a middle class man) must be the exception on the guest list, which he says caters for VIP guests and other celebrity high flyers. What’s he doing there, other than being a spokesman for such an inconspicuous department, beats me. To feast perhaps? Or to rub shoulders with these whiteys, which he so abhors.

The left over food, he says, is thrown away after the function (those I assume that has not been tucked away in Checker bags or handbags.) instead of being given to the poor. Has Mr Memela ever been to a function in East London? I doubt it that it is any different in his town. And let me assure him that that food which is hidden away in plastic bags don’t go to the poor.

He says a he is one of  few of this middle class ilk, who are happy to join the whites (so he wasn’t dragged, was he?), who ”continue to plunder the wealth of the country and wallow in the luxury and splendour it offers. It is easy to get corrupted, you see.” You said Mr Spokesperson.

Let’s first look at Mr Memela’s hosts. They are obviously not civil servants because there are few whites left in the civil service, whose status would allow them to throw such lavish parties. His hosts are most probably people in the private sector, who because of their hard work and the profitability of their companies can afford to host such parties for high flyers and one middle class soul. The monies spent on these functions come from their own pockets.

Unlike the functions and workshops (better known as eating and drinking frenzies) which Mr Memela’s government spent its money on. And in most cases these departmental functions are hosted by department heads, whose departments all received qualified reports from the Auditor General. And in all probability these departments have not functioned for years.

But let’s look at Memela’s reference to the whites who continue to plunder the wealth of the country. Does he specifically mean his hosts or is it a general reference to whites. Mr Memela has obvious not read the Pillay report to see who have plundered this province of taxpayers monies.

So that’s why my initial sickness and anger turned to pity. It’s sad that after 14 years of democracy, affirmative action, BEE, nepotism, the quota system, the Black Management Forum, there are still those middle class people who could not make it to the top. For whom the riches of the country have escaped. Who has to accept invitations from plundering whites to be seen some where. Who remained spokesmen for other civil servants that have climbed the career ladder.

Mr Memela, I am referring to you and your pitiful middle class. Not the millions of poor who you have referred to, but have instead been abandoned by civil servants, who allowed school feeding schemes to go rotten, while filling their own pockets, whose hospitals under their care malfunction on a daily basis, whose education departments cannot even provide school books, or who are merely too incompetent or lazy to care about the poor.   

Instead of feasting yourself at the parties hosted by these plunderers, rather try and help the poor. Don’t leave it up to the hundreds of welfare organisation, which are run by plundering whites without government assistance, but at least see that the poor and disadvantaged elderly and children receive their daily bread. Then you can talk.

As everybody by now knows former Finance & Economic Affairs MEC Enoch Godongwana’s name was also mentioned in the Pillay report on corruption in the Eastern Cape.

But can it be? This is what I picked up on a Pam Golding website, which serves as a selling tool of the dwellings at the Bushman’s Sands Country Estate in Alicedale.

Alicedale, as Pam Golding’s Colleen Rippon, put it was once “a God-awful place where we all went and fetched our children in the dead of night.”

The website continues. “Then something happened in the Eastern Cape and SA”, with reference to Godongwana’s appointment as MEC. “He had a plan,” remarked the estate agency.

“He throttled the lava flow of state money going to corrupt and greedy palms in the civil service and beyond.”

At least we now know that Pam Golding did not ghost write the Pillay report.

Now I have heard it all. Listen to this story and you will understand why someone such as the gangster-friendly jackie Selebi is our police commissioner. In 2003 George Morkel died in a car accident near Stellenbosch.

In an aftermath to the accident Caledon police captain Dawid Johann Jullies was found guilty in the regional district court last week of stealing rubber mats and hubcaps from the car. But the next day he was back in his office as acting station commissioner!

Then, when News24 asked how it was possible that Jullies could return to his old job, provincial police spokesperson Captain Elliot Sinyangana explained that they were informed at the time that Jullies had received permission from the owner of the car in the accident to take the items.

Now listen to this. Morkel, the owner of the car, was decapitated during the accident and died at the scene!

I have had many complaints from people about invitations to time share presentations. Normally the guest is lured to a few hours of marketing talk with the promise of receiving a gift.

Today in my column, in case you did not read it, I deal with the multi level networking trend. What is disturbing is that a local GP, who obviously acts as a agent for an American company, is now peddling certain products which supposedly can cure cancer etc etc. But you cannot buy it, you have to join this club. I find that very wrong, or at least ethically not kosher. Decide for yourself.

As I drove down the double lane (the part which has been completed) Gonubie access road out of town this morning, I wondered whether Buffalo City Municipality and its traffic department will still surprise us. Or whether what I feared will be a reality.

We all know the traffic outflow in the mornings is a pain in the butt. But it’s not half as bad as coming back into Gonubie in the afternoons, when incoming traffic sometimes backs up far down the N2.

The outgoing double lane will alleviate the traffic flow in the mornings although I fear we may see bottle necks when right lane vehicles have to move into the left lane near the N2 turn-off.

But unless (and my bet is that no such plan is in the offing) the law enforcement authorities (yes, they are really described as such) change – say from 4pm – the Gonubie inbound road from a single to a double lane road, the afternoon problem will persist. They do this type of thing in many overseas countries. Need I say more?

To do so, traffic cones would have to be placed all along the road to indicate the lane change. And preferably flashing signs, informing motorists of the change from a single to double lanes, should also be erected. More importantly, officials of our depleted traffic force should be on hand during that peak period to enforce (?) the law.

My bet is that this is much too much to expect from our municipality.