DINNER PARTY INTEL: What’s that word again?

1. Waiting for riches

Namibia is said to be on the cusp of great wealth, thanks to oil finds off its coast. But most of its people live in dire poverty.

Last week they gave Swapo only 53% of the general election vote that was once a comfortable 87%. Voters appear no longer enamoured of the “liberation party”. Many of the 3-million Namibians are without basic housing, unemployment is high and farm workers earn a daily minimum of N$10. It is also the second most unequal country (after South Africa), according to the World Bank.

2. Sweeping changes

Thaba Tshwane, the Pretoria army base that has had three name changes to fit in with the politics of the day, was once spick and span but lately more rack and ruin after unmilitary elements have infiltrated the place. Defence force chief Gen Rudzani Maphwanya, in a speech read on his behalf at a “thanksgiving parade” last week, said it’s being cleaned up for inspection. He thanked “members who dedicated their time, energy and lives” to the task. No medals for valour were handed out.

3. Words of the year

During this season of forced frivolity, one of the silliest traditions

is deciding “word of the year”. For Oxford University Press it was “brain rot” and for some others “demure”. In the age of

Trump, The Economist, that paladin of style, chose “kakistocracy” — rule of the worst. It claims its root is kakos, from ancient Greek meaning “of bad nature” and an antonym for aristocracy, originally “rule by the best”. It was unaware of any South African connotation.