Only two weeks after the ANC’s national disciplinary committee, advising on Julius Malema’s appeal, kept journalists and a vast television audience waiting for two and a half hours at Luthuli House, ANC politicians have once again displayed the utmost rudeness to South Africans.

This time it was the Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane at her State of the Province address, who showed contempt for her audience by keeping them waiting for more than two hours before she began her speech.

Similar to what happened at Luthuli House, there was no common courtesy of an apology or an explanation of when the proceedings would begin.

It’s starting to become a habit with the arrogant ANC honchos of embracing disrespectful “African time”.

What kind of an example does this rudeness send to young people?

Only last week Gauteng Education MEC Barbara Creecy made a grandstanding appearance at a local school, threatening to have tardy pupils arrested by the police and held at the police station.

Maybe Ms Creecy should instil some of her credo of civility and manners on her boss, Premier Mokonyane.

The late start of the provincial speech has certainly set a bad example on the impressionable younger generation of South Africans.

If schoolkids are expected to observe punctuality, then so, too, should political leaders.

J Heinrich Mueller

Killarney, Joburg