Juju strikes it lucky

It’s too bad cigarette ads are forbidden now because the revenue propped up the media so nicely in the good old nicotine-stained days.

But never mind, the fantasies so evocatively created by ad writers in the previous century are still playing out — not on the silver screen but live at such places as Emperors Palace in Kempton Park, where the EFF held its “lavish” (to quote media reports) black-tie fundraising gala dinner last week.

This is how the fabulous dinner would have looked from an ad executive’s point of view: “Splashing dinner parties. Winter fun. This is the world of the Economic Freedom Fighters — youngest of the political brands. Rich, choice tobaccos, er, smugglers. Miracle irony filter. King size ticket prices to sit at the commander-in-chief’s table. Wherever you go, either the gala dinner or the red beret 10th anniversary rally for the poor — so much more to enjoy.”

At the party’s 10th anniversary celebrations, held two days later with 90,000 supporters packed into FNB Stadium, the red beret leadership, without a hint of irony, railed as usual against economic injustice. 

No mention of senior crime intelligence cop Maj-Gen Feroz Khan attending the Emperors Palace shindig and reportedly sitting down at the same table as self-confessed cigarette smuggler Adriano Mazzotti, who once gave the EFF R650,000 so it could register with the Electoral Commission of South Africa.

Now if you like your smoke and mirrors with flavour, friend, with an honest-to-goodness tobacco (smuggler) and top-cop blend, the greatest combination yet is you — and a red beret gala. 

EFF, yep, thaaaat’s the one.