Rough draft of history
ONE surveys the festive season pillage. Pride of place is a stopper
for a whisky bottle, surmounted by a magnificent guinea fowl in
pewter.
Did this niece know my whisky tipple is The Famous Grouse (also
known as Die Beroemde Tarentaal)?
Terrific! It makes a man want to keep using that stopper.
Then a publication: A Newspaper History of South Africa, by John
Cameron-Dow (Don Nelson). This takes us from the gold rush
days in the old Transvaal, through the Jameson Raid and the
Anglo-Boer War, right up to the present, illustrated with cuttings
and photographs.
I had not been aware of this publication before. This fifth revised
edition brings us right up to date with the death of Nelson Mandela,
the Oscar Pretorius trial and the Nkandla affair.
As Philip Graham of the Washington Post noted, journalism is
the first rough draft of history. Paging through this publication one
finds plenty of that: Two world wars; the fall of Smuts; Sharpeville;
Verwoerd's assassination; the Information Scandal which brought
about the fall of John Vorster ... right through to issues such as
"Guptagate" and Nkandla.
It's a little unnerving to find things like the Info scandal that actually
fell under one's watch. It was mind-blowing stuff – the Nats never
did recover.
No interest
THE assassination of Verwoerd also stirs a few memories. It
coincided with release of the James Commission of Inquiry into
shenanigans on Durban City Council. The Mercury had to run its
front page on James, as planned, with a four-page wraparound on
Verwoerd. It never rains but it pours.
The paper was owned in those days by a prominent Old Natal
Family. A friend worked for CNA, who did the distribution. He
phoned to ask by how much the Mercury were increasing the print
order.
"But I've already increased the print order," said the chairman and
MD.
"That was for the James Commission. The prime minister's been
assassinated now."
"Oh, I don't think Natal people are much interested in that kind of
thing."
It was only with difficulty that he was persuaded otherwise. There
was no TV in those days. That night Devonshire Place was
besieged by people snatching the country edition off the presses.
Yes, the rough draft of history.
Action
THINGS happened in those days. The James Commission report
saw the sitting mayor and the chief constable of the Durban City
Police go to jail. A former mayor, who was on holiday overseas,
never did return.
Today? Er, apart from a national police commissioner, it's difficult
to find anything today that compares.
Hand-painted
I'M touched to have received yet again a hand-painted Christmas
card from Joyce Steadman, of Durban.
Not too many people send cards in these digitalised times, let
alone sit down and paint them. Joyce, who is in her nineties, has
been sending me a card every year.
This year's one, beautifully executed, has a man and a small boy
sitting gazing out to sea. It's probably on the Wild Coast because
the man seems to be wearing a Pondo blanket and is smoking a
pipe, as the Pondos (men and women) love to do.
The small boy is probably not a Pondo as he has red hair. Joyce
fully captures the repose and contentment of the sub-tropical and
probably trans-ethnic scene.
Thank you, Joyce, and your good wishes are heartily reciprocated.
Jolt
IT WAS with something of a jolt that I discovered only the other
day that Joyce Steadman is actually the mother of a fellow with
whom I sometimes watch rugby.
It's not that he's one of these rugby barbarians. It's just that, much
as I can't imagine Joyce quaffing pint after pint of ale, I can't
imagine him hand-painting Christmas cards.
ANC?
ROB Nicolai, Howick's resident theoretical physicist, notes the
nuptials of Juju the political hellraiser, and his sweetheart, Mantwa
Matlala.
He wonders if they were married by ANC (ante nuptial contract, of
course – don't be silly!) and speculates as to what they played at
the wedding reception. Love My Tenders?
Tailpiece
A WIFE texts her husband at work
on a cold winter's morning: "Windows
frozen, won't open."
He texts back: "Gently pour some
lukewarm water over it."
She texts back five minutes later:
"Computer now completely buggered."
Last word
Like its politicians and its wars, society has the teenagers it deserves.
J B Priestley
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