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Take Mandela along to avoid losing your... |
Take Mandela along to avoid losing your wallet to mall muggers
THERE is a disturbing tendency in SA journalism to write extremely wicked things about very rich businessmen, many of whom happen to be personal friends of mine. I can only think that these spiteful and malicious outpourings, which are passed off as "investigative reporting", are motivated by envy, jealousy and an in-built inferiority complex that so many hacks seem to carry as part of their emotional baggage these days. Journalism is known to pay appallingly but, let's face it, people don't go into it for the money? They go into it because they like to get invited to lots of freebies and because they get a buzz out of seeing their names in the paper. Anyway, that certainly used to be the case. These days, it seems that things are different. Whenever a reporter is summoned by a leading businessman to hear the correct version of events, he inexplicably wants to go off and talk to a lot of unreliable drunks and vagrants. Unfortunately, SA is moving ever closer to a culture of the lowest common denominator and I suspect it is only a matter of time before a "tabloid" newspaper is foisted upon us with all the attendant filth and muck-raking such an endeavour entails. In the past few weeks, various publications have shamed themselves (and discredited the once proud traditions of SA journalism) by giving currency to the pitiful whinings of assorted malcontents who obviously have an axe to grind. The editors of those publications would do well to remember that their salaries are paid by advertising revenue and not by the vicious invective that pours from their pens. The notion that because somebody is filthy rich, he must also be ruthless and devious is complete nonsense and pure Hollywood. Many of my friends in the business world are committed altruists whose only desire is to make the world a better place and to create jobs for our people. IT OFTEN comes as a terrible shock to them when they find out how much the share price of their company has risen or discover that their free share options are worth another R10-million. This embarrassment of riches makes them an easy target for lefty publications whose energy would be better spent trying to get some reliable answers out of our politicians.
Just a few days after the Smal Street Mall was exposed as a notorious crime spot by a Johannesburg newspaper (complete with a sequence of shots showing somebody being mugged) it was visited by President Nelson Mandela, who is spending some time in SA this month. He was accompanied by Tokyo Sexwale, Cheryl Carolus and Jacob Zuma and lots of police, plain-clothes security men and bodyguards, while overhead, both police and military helicopters hovered. The president had decided to go on a walkabout and to ask some of those traders who are still alive about their views on crime in the area. Most traders in Smal Street have become so used to the daily toll of inner city crime that many thought the commotion outside their shops to be just another tourist being relieved of a Nikon. IMAGINE their surprise (and relief) when a beaming Mandela walked in and ordered eight portions of chicken nuggets and chips to go. During the president's visit there were no reported muggings, rapes, murders or stabbings in the Smal Street Mall, which can mean only one thing. If you want to go shopping in central Johannesburg, make sure you take the president with you.
The family that plays together stays together, so it does seem terribly unfair that poor Chris Ball is in trouble again for allowing his two daughters to take Prince Albert of Monaco jolling in Cape Town, albeit in the company of at least four other partygoers. Prince Albert is one of the people who will decide whether Cape Town hosts the Olympic Games in 2004, so it was absolutely essential to launch a credible charm offensive. Instead of criticising them, I think we should be extremely grateful that two young and attractive girls are prepared to give up their Saturday nights to entertain middle-aged minor royalty. Where will these unseemly attacks on Chris Ball end? Before long somebody will complain that his wife's chutney is being used for official functions.
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