Grand Emperor of the Western Cape, Helen Zille has been talking up a storm after a police briefing on World Cup security. She warned of the dangers of sensationalist media and their attempts to stoke up negative sentiment about the country and the tournament.
Well said, Helen. We warned you about that over 3 months ago.
“There are a lot of journalists who want sensational stories in the run-up to the World Cup. Be very careful not to be caught off-guard with a sensational quote,” she said.
Zille said it was important not to “pump up” international fears, and mentioned the recent attack on the Togolese football team during the Confederations Cup in Angola as an example of how perceptions could go wrong.
“They don’t differentiate between countries,” she said, adding that she herself had been on the receiving end of journalists “trying to squeeze alarming statements” out of her.
While this is obviously of concern, those journalists should have known better than to mess with Zille. Even when squeezed really tightly, all that comes out is rhetoric; stuff like “ANC”, “totally unacceptable”, “President Zuma” & “morally questionable” with the odd transitional phrase thrown in so it all makes sense.
To her, anyway.
After savaging the media, she then turned her attention to the equally menacing vuvuzela.
“The vuvuzela is great fun until you sit and hear thousands,” she said.
“You need to warn people. You need to have earplugs on sale at the stadium.”
Seriaas, Helen?
“It is a serious point I am making, I am not being frivolous.”
Oh… right.
Well, that’s nonsense.
One vuvuzela is annoying. Thousands of them honking together like an army of mad geese is just great.
Also, this gives the ANC a great indication as to how to disrupt the next DA rally that they want to disrupt. No – not the thousands of vuvuzelas thing, the opportunity to sell earplugs to people on the way in.
And then they could do the thousands of vuvuzelas thing just to annoy Helen.
The way I understand it (and I am happy to be proven wrong on this), the Vuvuzela was born out of the hollowed out Kudu horn which has been used over centuries by many Africans to trumpet away merrily, and also not so merrily when they needed to raise the alarm. Mrs Zille needs to understand that if we were to allow all football fans to use actual Kudu horns, that we would be faced with the extinction of one of our most admired antelope.(Remember all the fuss over the elephant tusks?)
Well done to whoever invented the Kudu horn substitute. You should be praised for continuing a wonderful African tradition and also for saving the beautiful Kudu from extinction so that our grandchildren will have the opportunity to appreciate them.
Vuvuzela inventor, you are an unsung hero of Africa!! Long live the Vuvuzela!!
PnG > Love it!!!! And totally agree!