LETTER: Yes, a land of opportunity

South Africa is indeed a land of possibilities. As the FM pointed out last week (Fox, March 23-29), Sibongile Mani, who is fighting a National Student Financial Aid Scheme fraud case, is now treasurer of Walter Sisulu University’s alumni convocation. Yes, you read it right.

This is South Africa — a land of possibilities. You fail as a mayor of Tshwane, we promote you to “minister of Eskom”.

This week, ladies and gentlemen, allow me introduce you to Thabo Bester — another person showing that nothing is impossible in this country. He can run a successful business from behind bars, rent out his cell to a corpse, exchange handcuffs for  a R1.5m timepiece ... This is a good story for the ANC to tell for its next election campaign.

The poor correctional services department exhausted all its resources fighting tooth and nail to keep another celebrity, Jacob Zuma, out of prison. It’s no wonder it took the department a year to discover Bester was shopping at Woolies and not six feet under. But to then blame the media for spoiling the party? 

The department is suddenly waking up, appearing on every channel, every hour, trying to tell the nation it knew all along. But a year on, there was no forensic report — until news group GroundUp arrived on the scene. Is this another Phala Phala saga?  

Dr Lucas Ntyintyane 
By e-mail

The FM welcomes concise letters from readers. They can be sent to fmmail@fm.co.za