A good week for Ndavi Nokeri
Beauty pageants are not what they were when Penelope Coelen became SA’s first Miss World back in 1958. Not that our Penny could have been accused of being just a pretty face, but since then, the judges have looked beyond physical attraction and several South Africans have worn the various world sashes. The latest contender is Ndavi Nokeri, 23, of Tzaneen in Limpopo, who won the Miss SA title at the weekend. Not only is she a beauty, she also has poise and brains: a BCom graduate from the University of Pretoria who works as an asset manager.
A bad week for Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
If there’s one area where the ANC has no parallel, it’s crass consumerism. The latest affront to taxpayers, the poor and good taste generally is National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s two new Beemers (cost: R1.5m). Sure, that three-minute drive between the gutted parliamentary precinct and City Hall should be as dazzling as possible and evidently, the four Land Rovers bought two years ago for the speaker and other presiding officers to use (cost: R2.8m) were just so 2020. Less known for her searing intellect than, say, her choice of accommodation, the former defence minister does seem to know a thing or two about cars, though she is perhaps less knowledgeable about the fuel needed to keep a vehicle going, if the army’s dire straits are anything to go by. Oh, who cares: let’s have some cake!