ONE consequence of the lengthy break in the Oscar Pistorius trial is that the busybody foreigners out here to cover the Court Drama of the Century du jour have had a bit of spare time on their hands.
Some reporters, with a little prodding from editors, have made use of the opportunity to poke around for other stories and, in so doing, possibly reassure management that the escalating hotel bar tab really is the sort of justifiable damage that comes with a day's work in the field.
The Times of London, for example, this week offered its readers a glimpse into the unsophisticated mind of our other notable alpha brat, Julius Malema. The commander in chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters was in familiar attention-seeking form, it must be said, and spoke movingly of his plans to seize our worldly possessions without compensation. All on his first day in office as president, mind you.
Malema was asked about his taste for the finer things in life - his former Sandton home being an obvious starting point - and . . . well, here it all got a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. "Our struggle is not to live with our people in the shacks," he explained. "Our struggle is to take the people out of the shacks and give them a better life. The question of where I stay and how I dress is immaterial."
Perhaps it would have been immaterial had the commander been able to satisfy our curiosity as to how he'd been able to afford where he stayed and how he dressed. The Times, for example, did raise the issue of his expensive wristwatches. "I have never owned a Breitling - the watches were always borrowed to me," Malema replied.
The watches were borrowed to me?