Know your No

As parts of Johannesburg battled with no water, and it seems that, apparently, the entire sorry saga originated with cable theft …. or that could just have been a particularly electrifying rumour of course, thinking of South Africa’s power woes, which are not Eskom’s fault of course,  …, our brilliant new Energy Minister has announced the signing of an obscenely expensive nuclear power deal with Russia.

Now, I could be wrong, but I had thought that as the government struggles to find sufficient finance to fulfil all the many promises it has made over the past little while, not to mention the vast debt on e-tolls, the last thing needed was to go into any more debt, to the tune of one trillion rand. Makes the Arms Deal look like a sandpit negotiation between toddlers.

But then, of course, viewed from the perspective of our great breeder – I’m sorry that is of course our great leader – it is his right to stash away a little nest egg for when he retires to his palace in Nkandla. HTH for a firepool is fiendishly expensive you know, not to mention the stocks for the tuckshop, designer clothing to avoid in-boudoir bitchiness and fighting, all the chicken food and… the list goes on, but you get the idea.

But how is Zuma involved? A recent trip to visit his good mate Vlad in Mother Russia may have been a clue there . Funny how Tina jou-ma-se …. (never can get that name right somehow) immediately  agreed to sign the deal when the previous Energy Minister, Ben Martins, point blank refused to. She must be really tight with the singing one and the finger-wagging ‘be polite to the President’ one. Or hoping for a really great Xmas gift maybe for her efforts?

The English language is a wonderful thing, confusing in many ways, clear as crystal in others – and pronunciation is the key. So – No to Nuclear , No to Zuma,  No to e-tolls!! Shouldn’t we know what is happening, or should we all, as South Africans simply say – No way!!!