Dear Comrade Ramaphosa, Saviour of the Nation, Breeder of Buffaloes, Destroyer of Deadwood, Player of Golf, Shaker of Hands, King of Venda Financing.
I wanted to be the first to congratulate you on your ascent to the highest office in the land, but I assumed that I was hallucinating and didn’t want to say anything for fear of inciting the drug squad. Nobody needs the cold, wet nose of a sniffer dog in his crotch first thing in the morning.
So I apologise for the tardiness of my felicitations. It’s important to get in early before the names of all the fawners and flatterers blur into one. I want to be one of those who stands out in your mind. Not because I want any special favours, but because... okay, it is the favours. I won’t list them now. That would be crass.
Comrade, you sure give good reshuffle. It’s as if an integrity bomb fell right into the trough while the Guptas and their pet weasels were in mid-snout.
Actually, the timing could have been better. It was very accommodating of the NPA to make sure the three stooges from India were safely out of the country by the time you slipped between those 500-thread Egyptian cotton sheets at Mahlamba Ndlopfu for the first time.
I don’t understand why people are complaining that you didn’t fire Bathabile Dlamini, Malusi Gigaba and Nomvula Mokonyane. They are obviously there to make your new people look good. Diamonds shine brighter when juxtaposed with gravel.
There are also complaints about you appointing DD Mabuza as deputy president. Something about him being involved in tender fraud and political assassinations in Mpumalanga.
Hey. Times are tough. Everyone needs a side gig these days. Glad you gave the man a break.
It was also an inspired decision to appoint Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma as Minister in the Presidency. Every henhouse needs a fox. It keeps the chickens on their toes. I was, however, a bit surprised to see the minister of tweets get the boot. Fikile Mbalula was at least good for a laugh. Did you know he tweeted me a death threat the other day? Something about me losing an arm and a leg. He deleted it, though, which was nice of him.
I must say I feel a lot safer now he doesn’t have the entire police force at his disposal.
Bheki Cele is his perfect replacement and I’m not only saying that because we share a birthday. The original cat in the hat is an intimidating figure. If he walked into my house right now, I’d confess to stuff that I haven’t even done. And unless he killed Senzo Meyiwa himself, my bet is that he’s going to find out who did. Keep him away from lease deals and he’ll do just fine.
It was also a good move bringing Derek Hanekom back to head the tourism ministry. Tourists from Europe like to know that a white man is in charge of that side of things. Nobody wants to go on holiday if it means having to watch their family being boiled and eaten by cannibals.
I’m going to miss Lynne Brown and not just because
I have a thing for lesbians, either. She reminds me of the cuddly aunt I never had. Sure, an aunt corrupt and incompetent in equal measure, but cuddly nevertheless.
The moment I saw Malusi Gigaba playing Candy Crush in Parliament, I knew he was out.
Brilliant move sending him back to home affairs to revoke the citizenship of that unholy triumvirate of Dementors from Saxonwold.
After all, he granted them citizenship in the first place. It’s obvious he has to fix what he broke. For us ordinary mortals, to visit home affairs is to visit hell. Gigaba actually has to work there. I couldn’t think of a more fitting punishment.
I don’t know much about his replacement, Nhlanhla Nene, except that he was finance minister once before. Anyone who got fired by Jacob Zuma during his nine-year reign of error is almost certainly a hard-working, honest person. Victims of the Msholozi purges should be given the Order of Mapungubwe, don’t you think?
I imagine Nhlanhla’s counterparts from First World countries might struggle to pronounce his name. Perhaps he could use his middle
name, Musa?
No, wait. That sounds too much like Musi. How about Mufasa? Everyone loves The Lion King.
Speaking of Musi, isn’t it hilarious how the DA fell for the EFF’s romantic advances only for the lady in red to
start making eyes at their former lover.
I foresee a cosy quadripartite arrangement in 2019. A foursome, in other words, with the SACP and Cosatu swinging both ways.
I’m going to miss David Mahlobo. He was possibly the worst spymaster in the world. Everyone could see him coming. And I mean everyone, not just Chinese Chelsea at the Mbombela massage parlour.
It was devilishly cunning of you to make Bathabile the Minister of Women. It’s a ministry that, like so many of our women, can be quietly ignored and then done away with when nobody is looking.
There are, of course, women who objected to her appointment. One said she no longer identified as a woman and would henceforth consider herself a cat.
Hang on. The Hawks are searching author Jacques Pauw’s house as we speak. This is excellent news. I shoplifted Pauw’s book, The President’s Keepers, and it left me thoroughly depressed. There
is no place for whistle-blowers and investigative journalists in a democracy.
As you said in your State of the Nation Address: “We should put all the negativity behind us because a new dawn is upon us.”
Pauw needs to be put behind us because new dawn raids are upon us. He is guilty of committing the crime of journalism in the third degree and must be rendered to New York to plead his case to the judges on the Pulitzer board.
By the way, seven rhinos in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve were slaughtered in
a single day recently. Imagine if a school lost seven of its pupils in a day. You might be forgiven for thinking it was a badly run school.
The poachers are obviously timing their raids to coincide with the live Lotto draw. Or perhaps the afternoon siesta. If you don’t do something about the management of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, there’ll soon be more poachers than rhinos in the park.
Speaking of solitary, thick-skinned brutes, I’m a bit worried about the way Jacob Zuma is carrying on. If I were him I’d be in the fire pool
with nothing but a snorkel sticking out.
Instead, he has been swanning about like some kind of national hero. He arrived in a motorcade to the opening of the KZN Legislature and got out of the car laughing.
These are not the actions of a man recently fired and one press conference away from 783 counts of corruption. Does he know something we don’t?
Before I forget, I have some land I’d like to donate to the underprivileged. It’s not much, but I dare say you’d manage to squeeze two families and a goat onto it. Right now it’s just lying there unused and fallow, like me.
Feel free to send your men around to expropriate it at any time. I don’t want compensation. A position in your cabinet might be nice, though. I was thinking a new portfolio - the Ministry of Bacchanalian Affairs - would suit me well.
Anyway, best of luck. Those of us not trying to get into Australia are counting on you.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
Weekend Argus