Kabelo still on drugs? I never said that!

Three weeks ago a story appeared in the Sunday World about Kabelo, the kwaito/ Comrades star. Y’all will recall how he came out of the narcotics closet and declared himself messenger of JC and was duly anointed pastor at his church. Well the story, if you happen not to read the Sunday World, was about how his friend, fellow musician Gurash, had admitted to the paper that Kabz was a continuous supplier and consumer of these illegal substances from which we all believed he had abdicated. Gurash, the only source, was quoted extensively in this article. The kwaito trio Blackjack was formed when Gurash, a rapper with one CD under his belt, got together with now-Generations-actor Howza and Kabelo. The following Monday both Gurash and Kabelo appeared on The Avenue show on METRO FM as a means of clearing the air. Said reporter was also invited to partake but apparently didn’t pick up his phone when the calling eventually came.

Basically Gurash denied ever making such claims against Kabz, saying he spoke to the esteemed tabloid yes, but it was all about his upcoming solo CD. Nothing else. The Kabelo story was never even discussed. My problem landed right there and then. In 1908 all a reporter relied upon was his/her notebook and memory in telling the story as it really was. In 2008 reporters have dictaphones, cell phones that can record stuff, video cameras, all sorts of other recording devices. In 2008 you really cannot be misquoted, unless a problem arose during the sub-editing process. Even then the misquote would be minimal, a misspelt word or a wrong figure or something. Not the entire story!

Which genius artist manager lets his artist run off into the wilderness without advising him of such technologies? Two years ago I was privileged to sit down for two odd hours with Hugh Masekela for a one-on-one session. I brought along my dictaphone, as usual. He wanted to know why. I simply said “because you and I cannot trust each other to remember exactly what will be said here today”. The artist can make the excuse that it was a phone interview and therefore may have not been recorded on his side. If you are worth the story, you are certainly worth the journalist travelling to meet up with you somewhere, with his recording device. Mzansi tabloids are growing this reputation of creating stories and quoting sources who claim never to have been interviewed. The easiest, cheapest way out of this is to record the entire conversation, from both sides if possible. That way memories cannot be accused of faltering and lawsuits can be avoided.

Here blackie, have some BEE leftovers

Selling a 10% stake? Are you kidding me? Is that all? That is all I’m afraid. Vodacom is selling shares worth R7.5 billion to a large group of people, including its staff and others who are eligible to buy. This is a BEE transaction. This airtime company has a market value of over R75 billion, meaning that over R67 billion will still remain in hands other than those deemed to be BEE. Foreigners will make up the bulk of this – Vodafone being the largest of these – and others. The folk who actually keep the company in business by buying and using its airtime as well as its overpriced cell phone contracts will only get away with a maximum of R7.5 billion worth of Vodacom. Worse still, staff, the actual engine powering the Voda train are only allowed up to R1.87 billion of shares. Yoh! You must be joking for real.

Sasol, after being spanked on the wrist by Brian Molefe, the biggest single investor in the country, for not taking BEE and AA seriously, started scratching around for credible black faces to appear on its behalf at functions etc. Some were found, they came, some left. Thereafter a BEE share offer was made to the public and branded the biggest ever in the history of BEE. This part piqued my interest. So I picked up a sample prospectus of the offer and read it for myself. Sure enough the numbers were HUGE. We are talking something worth R30 billion. Big stuff. Until you scratch a little beneath the proverbial surface.

Firstly the list of advisors to the transaction – law firms, accounting firms, bankers etc – are all not exactly BEE themselves. So these folks will reap hundreds of millions for facilitating things even before the deal is sealed. Then I see there’s also a limit to how many shares are available. Worse, the shares do not constitute a direct ownership in Sasol, rather a vehicle towards direct ownership. It’s like buying into land on which a Chicken Licken fast food outlet stands, so you earn a portion of rent received, but nothing on Chicken Licken’s earnings. Your earnings only go up if rent is increased, but it pretty much stays the same. Even worse, you aren’t allowed to exit this deal for a period of 10 years! Who exactly is benefiting from this Sasol deal? Sasol themselves admit you CAN lose your money as this is a stock market-related transaction, so even after 10 years you could still come out empty handed.

Someone is asking if I have better ideas on how BEE can be better administered so that people truly gain from its existence. I do in fact, have better ideas. But no one is willing to pay me enough for them!

So Julius Malema is now as (in)famous as his immediate predecessor Fikile Mbalula? Or maybe even more so, perhaps as notorious as Peter Mokaba, the one before Malusi Gigaba? Malema last week said he and his followers are prepared to die for Jacob Zuma and the revolution, that in fact they would all take up arms and defend these two entities if necessary. I believe the ANC Youth League wholeheartedly, I really do. There is small doubt in my small mind that Malema is a committed patriot of the soil who will do anything to defend two of his most prized institutions; that of the ANC President and our country’s democracy. Many more young lions are in the same boat. They feel really strongly about what they see as continued harassment of their senior most leader by the National Prosecuting Authority.

What has a lot of observers in a slight knot are the words to kill. They say this is a threat to democracy, that this statement intimidates people, that in fact these words are inflammatory and tantamount to inciting violence. He of course says he will not apologise, despite calls to do so by the likes of bishop Tutu and others. Now even COSATU leader Zweli Vavi has reiterated these exact same words.

Is this really a call to arms? Should we be scuttling for the hills with our tinned fish and bottled water? I personally don’t think so. Yes we should be quite concerned that these adults and leaders are uttering these words at public gatherings. Words such as these could seriously be viewed as inciting violence, whereupon such violence should it take place, these leaders would simply deny they ever commanded anyone to kill. When Peter Mokaba said “kill the farmer kill the boer” he was not joking; it was a slogan thousands of ANC, PAC, APLA, MK and other struggle leaders chanted over years and years. People really did want to kill farmers because they represented the bottom end of the Afrikaner kingdom that sustained apartheid, they represented abuse of farm workers which were and still are some of the worst-off people in our society. Following farm killings, the public connected these chants to the violence, although I haven’t seen any report linking the two.

Who would Malema et al kill today? That is what probably has concerned faces dropping smiles en masse all over the country. Would it be members of the public? NPA workers? Judges? The cliché that is foreign immigrants? Or would it be anyone who opposes the election of Jacob Zuma as Mzansi’s President at the 2009 general elections? This mystery has us asking all sorts of questions about our leaders, our country, our future.

A small suggestion for Malema. How about we chant slogans like “no school, no future!” or something like “build a house, build a future!”. How about “kill HIV, kill AIDS!”? These seem more appropriate for 2008 to me than what ever else is being fought over. One thing Mbalula said, not may were listening to this, was that he and the ANCYL are always looking at ways of getting people to talk. So loud statements such as “walking around UKZN campus is like walking in Bombay” are supposed to raise issues in a manner different from the adults but still getting the nation into a discussion. The Zuma statement doesn’t appear to be of this ilk. And that is what scares so many people out there.