[A seven-day media report by Acumen Media] Friday is here! There’s your good cheer.
Where to start? Well I suppose I should start with Busi, you know my chom Busi, hey? Come on man, you know, Busisiwe? Oh wait, I should rather say ‘Madam Public Protector’. Now you know who I’m talking about. We heard testimony this week in which two strong witnesses told us the most shocking stories. If you think your boss is hard work, check this chick Busi out.
One of the testifiers, a woman, lost her young niece, she referred to the niece as her little sister and that when she fell ill it was a major issue for her and her family. I can relate – many of us can. This woman traveled to her stricken family anxious, begging for this child to return to health. Before she even left, before she did anything she wrote to the PP. The PP seemed to be reasonable and understanding and quoted scriptures of how the child would be healed through prayer. The next day the child died, a grief-stricken woman wrote again to her boss and told her that her niece had passed. The PP’s response, well again she quoted scripture and sent her condolences.
But the next day, our #DevilWearsPrada of a Public ‘Protector’ issued a list of reports that had to be finalised in a day or two. These are cases that are in various stages of investigation. The PP said if they weren’t finalised by deadline our witness would be given a disciplinary hearing. And she duly went ahead with exactly that. If that wasn’t horrific enough, we heard further testimony about a disabled employee, Madiba was his name. Madiba, who was perfectly-abled to work in the Public Protector’s office and had an exceptional track record, suffered a stroke under her menace. When Busi was told that he had taken unwell she immediately sent him a WhatsApp asking for a bunch of work to be completed. One of which was due on the very same literally in hours of the WhatsApp or again, she would implement disciplinary proceedings. He passed away. That’s our Busisiwe, our public protector.
Madiba’s brother tweeted that the testimony had broken his heart. These are real stories South Africa. Thankfully, #Concourt told #Mkhwebane where to get off on that appeal to halt impeachment proceedings and they said she must pay costs to boot. The enquiry continues, it’s on every day and Dali Mpofu has become my background noise. It’s my job and its hard work but nothing compared to working for the PP.
#Afriforum lost its case against the #EFF about singing struggle song #ShootTheBoer. It appears this struggle song now has a colonial English version. After the judgement the EFF took to the streets and sang their hearts out, in English. They should have tried Afrikaans too. Guys, I’m serious now, do we have time for this nonsense?
I saw COSATU and others call for the ‘mother of all strikes’ – a #NationalShutdown, this was meant to take place on Wednesday but we all went to work. Why? Because no work, no pay. Doesn’t matter if you work in the PP’s office or not. We all need to feed our families and hey, trade unions and government” We. Are. Tired. #SiKathele. A great Zulu word:
‘Kathele’ means I’m tired, but not a normal like yawn I’m tired; it is the kind of tired where you slump your shoulders and grudgingly put one foot in front on another. Just get on with your day. My South Africa #SiKathele.
COSATU, a word please, I think you’ve misread the room. You’ve misunderstood the state of this country, we don’t care about strikes, politics. Even past, present and future presidents don’t make an impact on our day; we are just getting back into the grind trying to make a coin while navigating through those horrific #CrimeStats that were released this week. That’s where we are at. #Working, we are hustling or we would be starving. If you want to make noise, please join Twitter and find yourself a set of bots or paid influencers because that’ how the world works now.
Whistleblower #VytjieMentor passed away; she’d been sick for a while and this brave woman never saw an ounce of justice. She told the #StateCapture Inquiry how #Zuma promised her all sorts of corrupt pay off for joining his crew. No one cared. I’m sad about #Vytjie, she tried. Thank you Ms Mentor.
Some of the biggest stories of the week focused on our hospitals: first we had the #ThembisaHospital CEO, Dr Ashley Mthunzi, deny that he spent half a million on #SkinnyJeans. The hospital bought 200 pairs of skinny jeans at R2 500 per pair. What kind of hospital is this? I want to go… R2 500 a PAIR? This was exposed by the slain whistleblower #BabitaDeokaran. He denies it, he said it was for stitches; well to be fair, skinny jeans can be stitched on. #NgiKathele
Staying with hospitals, #DrPhophiRamathuba didn’t mince her words in a leaked video in which she let out a tirade of xenophobic narrative on one Zimbabwean man who sought treatment in a South African public hospital. She used this opportunity to make it clear that the only reason our health system was failing was because of people like this patient. She didn’t check if she was here in South Africa illegally, no not at all, she just trampled over her and said #Foreigners are to blame for the state of our country’s healthcare. Eish #Ngikathele. Really ngikathele. This story was so big that Zimbabwe’s government offered to pay for the medical bill. I think everyone missed the point. Our hospitals, whether burnt down or ordering skinny jeans, are in a shocking state. It’s not foreigners, #DrPhophi it’s your crew. I mean if this person was illegal, why is she even here? If she was legal, she is entitled to medical treatment, in fact more so. Give her a pair of #skinnyjeans too. She doesn’t deserve to be a viral tweet by one of the head honchos spewing xenophobic nonsense. #SiKathele!
Another horror story is this oke, #TshwaneMayor, Randall Williams; he and Busi should get together and go bowling. He’s the guy who wanted to push through an unsolicited bid of R26-billion to a service provider he had handpicked.
And where’s our Prez? Well apparently he will answer questions on that pesky farm and couch story; it will take a panel to investigate. Noticing a trend? #Khatele. Former President #ThaboMbeki used #RitaNdzanga’s funeral to call for the “renewal of the ANC”. How many times will they renew this ANC? I must say he was feisty our, tata Thabo. He said there is something wrong with us when we kill people for municipal positions that feed the relentless greed that has become the ANC’s creed. That people within the party are only there for the cash, that they can recite the creed like great pretenders. #Sikathele
That head of the Lotto resigned as he was headed to a disciplinary hearing for a grand theft of people’s dreams. We don’t want your resignation, dude; can we have the money back? Last week, Steenhuisen’s #Roadkill comment about his ex wife was labeled “reprehensible” and then the DA’s women network said it was #LockerTalk. Juju said #PaulMashitile is tipped to be President, he gives us a new name each week. Ace can’t play at the gluttonous card table anymore and he is madder than a box of snakes, him and #SupraMuhamapelo – watch those two, they are gangsters! Whole bunches of insurrectors were arrested again this week, none of whom bear the name ‘Zuma’. There is no water at all in Nelson Mandela Bay and we stand and watch. The Competition Commission swooped on several insurance companies citing collusion.
What is my favourite story of the week? Well I’m glad you asked, the two presidents and their tekkies. I’m serious/Zuma and Ramaphosa showed off their tekkies on social media. The Prez wears #Bathu and the other (ex) prez wears Drip, sounds about right. I wonder which set of shoes is running this country. Just add #SkinnyJeans and we are all set. Oh wait, I can’t leave without empathising with my vegan friends, apparently you can’t call it fake chicken anymore, as products were removed from shelves across the country because of labelling. Are you kidding me? SiKathele
I’m Tonya Khoury and you’ve just scratched the surface with Acumen Media.
