[This black journalist is lambasting the high life styles of our useless politicians. And I firmly agree with him – nobody in parliament will do a damned thing about it. This country… is pumping that handcart… to hell… bit by bit… Jan]

FOOD FOR THOUGHTGone bananas

This country Is going straight to hell in a handbasket and we are doing nothing about it. At best, we mumble our dissatisfaction at dinner parties while the more fearful scratch their armpits. But a word in public from any of us? Nada.

A friend was held up and a gun put in his mouth the other day. Another friend’s daugh(194)Â(172)¬ter was tied up in her house by an intruder. Another friend was held at gunpoint for 30 minutes in a gym.

Rape is rampant. Do you hear any noises from those on high?

Unemployment is rife. The minister of health is a total failure, but if you think Thabo Mbeki is going to show her the door, then you must be a strong believer in miracles.

Take the transport ministry. My friend, Lucky Montana, used to be number two in Jeff Radebe’s department. Then taxi thugs came into his house, held him and his family at gunpoint and told him to stop his efforts on the taxi recapitalisation programme. Fearful for his life, he was told by the police there was nothing they could do. He now heads the railways.

Don’t forget the signal failure that is our policy on Zimbabwe. While 3 million Zimbabweans climb over electric fences to enter our coun(194)Â(172)¬try, President Thabo Mbeki had the gall to stand up at the UN last week and lambast Western powers for ignoring the poor.

I guess the timber forest in his eye does not bother him at all.If you thought this was bad enough, along comes Paul Mashatile, the Gauteng MEC for finance, who nonchalantly blew R96 000 of taxpayers’ money on a meal at Auberge Michel, the upscale eatery in Sandton. Yes, I know, he was with his underlings from the government, but really? Auberge Michel?

Apparently Mashatile took his colleagues to Auberge Michel after his budget speech on June 23 “to celebrate”. Celebrate what? Doing his job?I hope Barney Mthombothi is reading this because we should have a little party at one of SAs top restaurants every time I bash out an article.Mashatile seems to be a serial offender in this regard. The Star points out that in February he spent Rl? 183,50 for just two visits to Auberge Michel; various other amounts running into the thousands at other eateries. What is this government for, exactly? In a country where hundreds go to sleep with, as Mbeki put it at the UN, “hunger pangs”, how do the likes of Mashatile square that with their expensive tastes at taxpayers’ expense?

I think Mashatile is as entitled as the rest of us to his expensive tastes. In fact, I believe this government positively encourages the creation of millionaires. But I am sure no-one has ever said “go forth and enjoy on gov(194)Â(172)¬ernment’s credit card”. It is a bloody scandal ” and anywhere else in the world, Mashatile would be fired.

But, hell no, we encourage lax moral stan(194)Â(172)¬dards. The man will be at Auberge Michel next year with his colleagues, sipping ex(194)Â(172)¬pensive merlot with the rest of them. It will all go on the government credit card, too.That is the country we have. An MEC blows R96 000 on a jolly with his employees and there will be not a whimper from civil society. There will be not a whimper from his boss, Mbhazima Shilowa. If you think the ANC and its lame-dog MPs will say a thing you really are dreaming. They will be begging to be invited to the next jolly. After all, as said by their leader Smuts Ngonyama, they did not struggle to be poor.

That is why I went to Gramadoelas at the Market Theatre in Newtown. My wife and I had a delicious and filling curry and two glasses of wine, and the bill came to a modest Rl6l,48. Why aren’t people using this place more often? It is spacious and beautifully decorated. It is full of history. And it is a mere walk from the Gauteng legislature ” but I guess Mashatile and his cronies were afraid they would be mugged if they dined in the city.

Service was excellent when we got there on a Saturday evening and there were only three other tables. Two of them were tourists.

We asked for our meal to be done quickly and so it was. No hassle, great atmosphere, decent food at an extremely affordable price.

It is a place for people who do not, unlike the Mashatiles of this world, want this coun(194)Â(172)¬try to become a banana republic. Mashatile took his colleagues to Auberge Michel after his budget speech “to celebrate”. Celebrate what? Doing his job? Source: FINANCIAL MAIL, SEPTEMBER 29, 2006