"In reality the workings of your governing system are opaque and covert, while hiding in the chattering spotlight of an ostensible transparency, even"

"In reality the workings of your governing system are opaque and covert, while hiding in the chattering spotlight of an ostensible transparency, even though the ultimate objective is clear." – Breyten Breytenbach

As you may have cottoned on, I am no fan of politics. The dude above was a South African poet I think. Eventually he was locked up, guilty of high treason against the Republic for being white, but having sex with a person of different race , and for generally causing too much trouble in the old system of government that you have heard referred to as Apartheid.
For a while back in the late 80's his brother or cousin was a teacher at my High School, which actually meant that he had Nelson Mandela locked away in the store room at the back of the class, ready to escape as soon as the next door Afrikaans teacher Vince Pauldon turned his back. Vince was head of Cadets so there was no chance of him giving sly Mandela a chance of escape and so Madiba actually spent many years living in a Breyten Breytenbachs brothers storeroom on the 3rd Floor of Wynberg Boys High School.

This week in Southern Africa we seem to have two stories in the news which just confirm my alignment with the kind of statement in todays quote.

Firstly: As Mugabe and the Wastern Province rugby team winger - Morgan Tondarai Tsvangirai, are reported to have struck a deal, Mbeki now claims to be the mediator over the last few weeks. How it will all actually unfold remains to be seen and although I will not hold my breath when Mugabe is involved, I remain hopeful for the country with the lowest life expectancy in the world. How farcical though, to see Mbeki trying to grab some headlines through the whole ordeal.

Secondly: This Zuma vibe is just too much. The precedent that it could set if he is not even taken to trial or if not found guilty puts in place one of the many 'plays' the ANC has set-up to gain absolute power in South Africa and render the current systems powerless. The cartoon that Zapriro came up with? Impressive.

Post script: In the chart to the right that you so studiously checked out and were about to raise you hand to point out what an idiot I am for mentioning Zim has the lowest Life Expectancy, when the Economist clearly shows it as 7th worst in the world. Well my little teachers pets, when your inflation rate is 11.2 Million percent then things tend to slide a little faster than reports can keep up with.
While you are so diligently scanning that list though, try spot the non African country in the top 50. Scary.