FAMOUS GROUSE
WE were just talking about Fikile Mbalula, here at the Mahogany Ridge, when the barmaid mentioned that, some months back, the police minister had graciously held the door open for her as she entered a restaurant.
“Yes,” she said, “I don’t normally like clowns, even small ones, but I thought that was a nice jester.”
Oh, how we laughed. For, in truth, Mbalula would make a good hotel concierge, although he may need a wooden box to stand on in order to be seen by cabdrivers when hailing guests a taxi.
But, on the plus side, he is big on the bonhomie, and will go to great lengths to raise the spirits of those in despond. On Thursday, for example, Mbalula did much in an attempt to cheer up MPs in the National Assembly who had expressed concern about law and order.
We’re not sure he succeeded, for there is much that is vexing there. With reports that cops are the prime suspects in the disappearance of dozens of firearms from police stations and senior officers implicated in cocaine trafficking, it really does seem as if 70% of the police are giving the other 30% a bad name.