I'm frequently accused by a small group of malcontents (who persist in reading this column and getting upset) of being a tad negative about our beautiful country. I prefer to think of it as realism but each to his own and you are quite at liberty to see it as negativity.
Last week I took the advice of some of my harshest critics and flew back to the land of my birth (No...,not Scotland Mute Fool) to check up on my offshore investments and spread joy and light among my family there. As a UK patriot I like to think of myself as a one man consumer led economic recovery so, despite the crappy exchange rate (but I mustn't blame the unions must I?), I have been spending as though there were no tomorrow. A decent lunch at Oblix at The Shard can easily set you back over R1500 a head and all that eventually trickles down and creates jobs apparently. Or maybe not. Which is why I didn't bother to book at The Shard.
However, I digress. I checked into Olly Tambo last Thursday for my flight and I am delighted to report that such is the efficiency of ORT that I was sitting comfortably with a large gin and tonic in the lounge less than twenty minutes from check in. It may even have been less than fifteen minutes. Of course it probably helped that I was travelling down the sharp end and that the Emirates business class check-in is super efficient. But security and passport control were also super efficient and extremely polite. We'll have to see what the return journey is like (Yes sorry Mute Fool....I couldn't afford to stay there) but I have only ever had politeness and efficiency when I enter SA. I can't imagine why anybody would want to land at Waterkloof unless it is to side-step the difficult decision of whether to go through the red lane or the green lane.
Credit where it's due. We create a great impression when visitors are entering our country and our airports are surely among the best designed in the world. Unfortunately it's our politicians that let us down.
Take the rather odd demand from the ANC's Western Cape Secretary Songezo Mjongile that President Barack Obama not accept the proffered freedom of the City of Cape Town when he visits later this year. The objection seems to be two pronged. Firstly, it's not the ANC doing the proffering and, secondly, " it would be a pity if Obama accepted the award from a city that doesn't care about the poorest of the poor".
The first is easily disposed of. The ANC don't run the Western Cape so they're huffy that they are in no position to offer the freedom of Cape Town. Their objection shows a worrying churlishness that makes me wonder whether they will give up power without a struggle when they are kicked out in the next election but one. Since the reason for the visit of Obama is not primarily to secure the freedom of Cape Town (he does already have Washington) but to strengthen economic ties one might have hoped that the opposition would set aside party politics and encourage anything that might create jobs in this country. But that's not what our cosseted cadres do is it? Providing they have their own snouts in the trough they've never been too bothered about the plight of others.