Mary Woudberg, Somerset West
Once again, thank you so much for publishing my letter about Jemima’s poem (“In praise of Jemima, Bolander October 26).
I also wish to share with you what happened on Thursday.
She and her mother surprised me with a visit and beautiful bouquet of flowers. This was while many of our residents and our resident manager were in the dining room.
It was so overwhelming and such a wonderful pleasure to meet her personally and introduce her to everyone.
What a wonderful experience. I’ll never forget the feeling to see her and hug her. What a beautiful young girl.
Keep up your good work.
Roelien Rademeyer, Boland
Ek sal graag meer van Jemima Kola se skryfwerk wil lees. Ek dink sy het ’* blink toekoms as digter en skrywer.
Ed’s reply:
Jemima Kola wrote to me to thank us for publishing her poem in Bolander, as it resulted in her also being given the opportunity to speak on Radio Helderberg.
She will be sending us a new poem about her love of the Paardevlei Dam, so watch this space…
Len Walker,
Somerset West
The photograph on the front page of the Cape Times on October 27, where President Zuma congratulated the Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, at the conclusion of his presentation of the mini-budget, appeared to be an all-inspiring demonstration of confidence in the economy and in the man that Mr Zuma has given his full support to as he prepares himself for his court trial on Wednesday.
The reality of the situation was that Mr Zuma slept through most of the speech, but he probably had the privilege of having read the speech in advance, and was very comfortable with the content thereof.
Alternatively, he was totally bored and disinterested, and put on his very familiar grin purely for the cameraman.
To be fair, the president is only human, and to do the amount of travelling that he does to India, Kenya, China and to other far away places, at the cost to the taxpayer, he must be exhausted most of the time.
In addition, to have all the problems on his mind (the Guptas, his pending court appearance on the Public Protector’s report on state capture, the 783 charges hanging over his head, etc), it is not surprising that he cannot sleep at night.
So a little bit of shut-eye in a comfortable chair in Parliament far away from the maddening crowd is the least that he should be afforded.
