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Mathuthu's Jozi Diary (Day 6)
New Zimbabwe.com editor Mduduzi Mathuthu shares his thoughts about anything and everything on a visit to South Africa, venue of the 2010 soccer World Cup:
Saturday, December 16
.....................................
We should have been in Durban today.
That trip appeared in trouble as early as yesterday when Japhet’s boss and editor of City Press, Mathatha Tsedu, went through a gruelling memorial service for his son killed in the most brutal way imaginable.
As acting news editor, it would be dereliction of duty for Japhet to leave work for the sands and beaches of Durban, particularly when Tsedu is also not at work.
The charred remains of thirty-one-year-old Avhatakali Netshisaulu, Tsedu’s son born out of wedlock, were found in the boot of his burnt-out car.
He was a high flying chartered accountant.
His wife, Mulalo, told police he had called her on his mobile phone to say he thought he was being hijacked. She said police failed to respond.
She drove around a field in Nooitgedacht near Muldersdrift until she found firemen dousing the flames on her husband’s car, a VW Golf.
Mathatha’s grief is shared by a whole nation. His son’s death, a gruesome affair by the look of things, is difficult to explain, particularly as he had no links with criminal gangs. There was also no intention to hijack the car, so this was not a robbery.
Did they lock him in that boot and set it on fire while he was alive, or did they kill him first?
It’s the kind of question that will haunt his mum and dad to their own graves.
Japhet is a generally negative guy whose pessimistic view of life in general can send one into eternal depression.
But his pessimism is strongest when he delivers his daily lectures about women.
“Trust women at your own peril,” he always tells me. “Only fools fall in love. If you trust a woman, you are a fool. I will never walk down the so called isle. It’s a game of fools. I get proved right all the time.”
According to Japhet, Suthu women are generally loose and always have “Plan B”, a euphemism for another man.
“They can talk to another man while you are with them and not give the impression that they are with you,” he says. “You will only see the other guy turning up to pick them up.”
He is even more scathing on Xhosa women.
“They will milk you to the last penny”, he says. “They like using people. But with Xhosa women, you know they are yours when you are with them. They can, however, get very nasty if you play them…your car and other possessions are not safe when you cross them.”
Zimbabwean women?
“All they think about is marriage. You sleep with them and they want you to marry them. You can’t have that mtshana,” he says.
Rare praise is reserved for Venda women.
Japhet strongly suspects something is up with Netshisaulu’s wife.
It’s a nasty
thought. But as he says, “I get proved right all the time.”
…………………………………………….
A friend and prominent member of the New Zimbabwe.com Forums who calls
himself Lobengula arrived to pick me up this morning.
He lives in Pretoria and works in the banking industry.
We linked up with former Zapu leader, Joshua Mhambi, and headed for Soweto.
There we met Churchill Guduza, son of the late Makhathini Guduza, the brave former PF-Zapu central committee member who helped nationalist leader Joshua Nkomo escape death from then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe's security forces in March 1983.
Guduza died last year aged 76.
We drove to a place called The Rock in Soweto, but not before Lobengula took us on a tour of the suburb which has several sections that you have probably heard of from kwaito songs – from Dipkloof to Ndofaya.
Present day Soweto is nothing like you saw in Sarafina.
As Japhet told me, if the tourists coming for the 2010 World Cup bring goodies to Soweto hoping to find scenes from Darfur, Soweto is much more advanced – and the quality of life in areas is better than yours, wherever you are!
Dipkloof, especially, has houses to rival some of the best homes in Britain. Everywhere you look, you are confronted by evidence of a country making progress, speedy progress.
The Rock is a popular night spot here, and many top South African artists and DJs come here for their bit of rough – to gain street credibility, launch their new CDs or just for a reality check.
Close to the club -- an extensive double storey wall of white -- is a fairly small, thatched shade with three massive braai stands below.
What goes on here is not connected with the club. Hundreds of cars are parked around this shade every weekend as workers from every corner of Johannesburg trek here for the ultimate fun.
The sight of lines and lines of cars all with music blazing from car stereos is part of the fun. The louder the radio, the better your chances of your car taking center stage, and that comes with rewards – girls and so on.
We ordered boerewors sausages and isitshwala, or pap as they call it locally, from the resident butchery.
You can braai the meat yourself if you choose, but there people whose job it is to do the roasting– for a measly return of R5 for all their troubles. We chose this option and went back to the car to have a chat.
Mhambi briefed us about an ongoing consultation process by Tsholotsho MP Professor Jonathan Moyo, who is said to be working on a private members’ Bill in parliament dealing with issues around the Gukurahundi massacres -- a military clampdown on Joshua Nkomo and his supporters which left over 20 000 civilians dead in the 1980s.
Mhambi sees the Bill as an opportunity to pull the shutters on a very destructive and divisive period in Zimbabwe’s history.
Japhet arrives later
and we depart shortly after. No mention of Durban as we head for Midrand
where Arthur Mafokate – who is friends with the City Press man
-- has a gig tonight.
……………………………………………….
We went via the Innesfree Park in the affluent Sandton area where Japhet’s
friends are basking.
I was met with a scene that you can only find in South Africa. Tens of cars have parked on the perfectly manicured stretch of green grass. Some people have brought their braai stands and are roasting meat in the afternoon sunshine.
All around, its pure unmitigated fun. Japhet has brought a cooler box stuffed with Peroni, the Italian brew that I have strangely come to like – after all the protests I made in my diaries last year.
We pulled our collapsible hunter’s chairs from the car and got down to business. Midrand was put on hold.
Japhet’s friends, three sisters from Ebony Park in Soweto, have been here all afternoon and suggest that we try out a new spot opening today in a part of Soweto, not too far from Ebony Park.
When we got there, it appeared as though the whole of Soweto had come for a drink. If someone had Ebola there, we would have been witnessing a disaster of unparalleled proportions.
We spent a maximum of two minutes there. It was just uninhabitable. The Midrand gig was back on the agenda, but there was a new diversion.
Our friends Dingilizwe Ntuli (Sunday Times) and Mandla Ncube – a guy who genuinely believes maskandi artist Umfazomnyama (now dead) was the best artist in the last decade -- have called us to meet up at the Midrand News Café.
When we got there, Ntuli was nowhere to be seen. Mandla advised us that he has had one too many. Slumped hopelessly in the car, Ntuli provided a perfect picture for those who want to quit drinking.
Just like the Durban mission, the plan of going to Arthur’s gig suffered a very deliberate death.
Japhet was soon dabbling in a familiar debate – offering his views about women. His lady friends are Xhosa, and I was amazed just how much they agreed with Japhet on everything except his views on Xhosa women. No surprises there, I guess?
They embraced the view of Suthu women as players, Zulu women as inflexible and Venda women as near perfect – but not on Xhosa women as being money grabbers and violent.
Japhet is not scared to talk about his past conquests, or even present, to other targets – the stuff that makes me cringe with embarrassment.
But I soon learn it doesn’t matter here. This is a one-night-stand country.
Frankly, it’s frightening.
READ PART
SEVEN OF MATHUTHU'S DIARIES TOMORROW
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