Out of the Mouths . . .
In Durban, there is a piece of ratepayer funded propaganda called the ‘Metro’ - or ‘ ezasegagasini’ for those who do not understand ‘Metro’ - which has now apparently taken the place of the folly called ‘MetroBeat’ (see previous blogs). It is replete with feel-good items such as ‘Thumbs Up for Budget’, ‘We’re wInning the Water Loss War’ and ‘Pensioner Rejoices over New House’.
Under ‘Opinion and Letters’ we have ‘Money is Tight but we’re Using it Well’ from the Mayor Mr. Obed Mlaba and then this item from the egregious Municipal Manager, Comrade Dr. Michael Sutcliffe:
‘King Shaka Airport Does Us All Proud’ - this from a man who has ignored this multi billion rand development on his doorstep for five years - and in fact showed his enthusiasm for it by delaying it by three months.
He manages - presumably by swallowing copious amounts of bile - to devote a whole two paragraphs to the subject before wandering off in to more pressing matters such as his pet World Cup football stadium which he labels as an ‘incredible success story’ already.
Har har.
He then unsurprisingly takes a swipe at those who have the temerity to disagree with him but surprisingly, gives an example of what triggered the outburst. I quote:
” . . . our wonderful city that shows that South Africans are really special people.
Of course we have some ‘Mother Grundies’ who still complain about everything. Recently I was confronted by two children around 12 and 15. The young girl said ‘Mr. Sutcliffe, we like you because you are white, but you are friendly with blacks so we think you are an a**hole’.
She repeated the sentence like a parrot and then returned to her and they walked away. Their parents had clearly told them what to say. All could think of was what kind of parents do we have bringing up children, getting them to mimic their own racism but not showing them what a wonderful country and people we have.”
Well Dr. (of town planning) Sutcliffe, the bulk of Durban’s population also think you’re an ‘a**hole’ but not because you’re friendly with ‘blacks’ but because you have an ego that is in inverse proportion to your competence, you have an agenda that you’re prepared to prosecute even if it means taking procedural ’shortcuts’ and an unprofessional, peevish and vindictive nature that might indicate some sort of sociopathic deficiency when you encounter someone with a differing opinion.
It’s about time he went off and infested some hapless academic institution where he can do no more harm to a once fine city that increasingly resembles a bomb site.