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Monday, May 25, 2009

A ticket to ride…

South Africa has been gripped by a near-scandal involving a luxury German land yacht and a new minister in Jake’s government.

 

 

WOULDN’T you have thought that the least problem on the mind of South Africa’s newly appointed Transport Minister, S’bu Ndebele, would be transport?

 

Well, it is. And, what’s more, it comes in the form of a motor car of such opulence that the august personage riding in the back would need at least a Presidency, if not a Kingdom.

 

This überwagen was offered to the Hon. Minister as a present from a mysterious group of ‘contractors’. This on the occasion of the honourable gentlemen’s accession to office. A number of things present themselves at this point; to me anyway.

 

Wouldn’t you have thought that his advisors, maybe even his heavies, would have said something along the lines of, “Pardon Sir, but begging Sir’s pardon, isn’t this lot a bit over the top? What about the workers?”

 

Not to be outdone, S’bu sought the counsel of our President. Prez said a number of things, if not actually, “Give it back, S’bu, give it back”.

 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, S’bu gave it back.

 

And in so doing earned himself more plaudits and praise than you can shake a stick at. And quite rightly.

 

What on earth were the ‘contractors’ thinking? Had they no idea of the embarrassment that would descend on the unsuspecting heads of departments scurrying around the skirts and coat-tails of our 62 member cabinet? Apparently not.

 

I can only assume that the ‘contractors’ had not thought it through. They didn’t notice, perhaps, the whiff of tainted money, of the greased palm; they may not have realised that the minister, along with his 61 ministerial colleagues, might actually be asked to justify the morality, if not the legality, of some heavily laden gestures of generosity. The ‘contractors’ doubtless expected a little tit for tat, as it were.

 

Given the smouldering ruins of parliamentary ethics and responsibility in the mother of all democracies, the Palace of Westminster, at the moment, a little discretion might be in order.  

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