SEEING as it's Easter it is perhaps quite appropriate that the national chairwoman of the ANC, Baleka Mbete, should remind us that a man's home is not just his castle, but a sacred castle at that. Ditto the home of his cows.
Like so many of the party faithful before her, Mbete was, of course, rushing to defend her rubbish president from the provocations contained in Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's report into the security upgrades at Nkandla.
"A lot was clarified, in fact, by Thuli's report," Mbete told reporters on Thursday, somewhat stating the obvious. "She then goes on to say a few things that, in our view, are actually debatable, because in the African tradition you don't interfere with a man's kraal. The issue of a man's kraal or a kraal of a family is a holy space."
That took us by surprise at first, here at the Mahogany Ridge. Being of secular, if not entirely sober, habits, the regulars did wonder about the purpose of holes in a kraal, especially one with a chicken run. Would the chickens not escape? Issue forth, as it were? Could Mbete have been referring to that special culvert we'd heard so much about? Clearly there was much about African tradition that we didn't know.
Then it dawned on us: it was that good, old-fashioned mumbo jumbo again. And why not? The president is an ordained priest after all. He has a special relationship with his ancestors, one of whom, a great uncle, is apparently God. Has he not told us that the ANC will remain in power for as long as there is an Easter Bunny?
And what of his parables? The good stories that he could tell us? Two years ago, speaking like a great prophet, Zuma declared, "When you vote for the ANC, you are also choosing to go to heaven. When you don't vote for the ANC you should know that you are choosing that man who carries a fork . . . who cooks people."