The arrogance continues…

And continuing with the theme this week of venting some spleen, how can the recent outbursts against the press, by Jessie Duarte, ANC spokeswomen go unchallenged?

Only this weekend, she layed into Sunday Times journalist, Philani Nombembe. To the question (by Nombembe) “Does the ANC President also get to answer (responses from his blog)?” she replied:

“He’s got his own blog. Yes. You can write to him if you want to. It’s ancpresident. In fact if you go www you can link straight from there to any of our blogs. Ja, he does read it. He does, he does. You know he can actually read, contrary to your opinion. I mean how can you ask me a question like that you know, does the ANC President actually read? Good God. Can you guys just get a life now. Ja no, you must get a life. You people must get a life. You’re terribly classist and if you’re not black I would say you were racist. But, well I suppose you could be racist even if you were a black like me. But you’ve got a very bad attitude, your newspaper has, you know and seriously speaking now this man, whether you like it or not is going to be the president of the country. And actually we’re not so concerned about what The Times thinks…”

It seems that she had a chance to practice, while being interviewed late last week, on BBC presenter John Humphrys’ Today radio show, where her conduct could only be described as “terribly arrogant.” Judge for yourself by listening to a recording of the interview here.

I think by now South Africans have become immune to the arrogance of government officials and indeed ANC officials as well. The utter disrespect for the citizens of this country from these officials is all but gazetted into law as normal, legal and acceptable behaviour. However, when someone like Ms Duarte goes mouthing off to the foreign press, it shows the utter disdain, the ANC has for the international community as well. When one considers all the damage our Foreign Minister, and the former Minister of Health have already perpetrated, I suppose one more spokesperson cannot make it any worse than it is.

Enough already, of this Bollywood hijacking of the Indian Premier League

Okay, this is officially the start of spleen busting week. And my first victim of anger is Bollywood and the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament that has been relocated to South Africa, from India.

I actually love cricket, and it’s great having so many former and current cricketing stars all in South Africa at the same time. Everyone’s also saying how good the tournament’s relocation is going to be for us, in terms of the foreign revenue that will be earned. But, did they have to drag Bollywood along to South Africa for the ride as well?

You see, I’m really peeved at the way ageing Bollywood stars are using the IPL to grab whatever media attention they can, and milk it for all its worth. Every time you hear something about the IPL, there is always mention of some or the other Bollywood star as well and it’s just sickening. I know that some of these ageing stars have shareholdings in the cricket franchises participating in the tournament, but couldn’t they just remain behind the scenes and allow the cricketers to the fore? I really don’t need the song and dance routine every time one of the cricket teams are mentioned. I mean, it’s just not cricket!

Could you Bollywood stars please get out of my face already, so that I can enjoy some cricket?