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Limpopo premier Phophi Ramathuba had something to get off her chest this week: the Ben 10 phenomenon and how it can be “the downfall” of some women in politics. In this context, Ben 10 shouldn’t be confused with the Cartoon Network superhero — it is local slang for a younger man in a relationship with an older woman.
During a speech the other day at the official handover of a house, the premier went off at a tangent: “The day I was appointed an MEC [of health] … one brother of mine warned me: ‘You know people will [start to] tell you how beautiful you are, you will even [wonder] “but I have not done any special surgery” … You’d say, “but I am still Phophi, my nose is still the same”, but they’ll say, “but you are the most beautiful”.’
“That’s men, when they want to run the budget of the department of health … If you look at the downfall of women in leadership, especially us in politics. Look at all the women we removed — some of them very old — it is because of Ben 10.”
Hogarth is not encouraging anyone to connect any dots, but the premier made these remarks weeks after President Cyril Ramaphosa fired 66-year-old social development minister Sisisi Tolashe — who, among other things, was said to be under the undue influence of a young male staffer in her office — and replaced her with Dina Pule, who was previously fired from cabinet amid allegations that her boyfriend ran her government department.
A cobra awaits its moment
Apparently Gwede Mantashe, ANC national chair and minister of mineral & petroleum resources, has been scarce on television. So when an SABC journalist spotted him at a gathering recently, she asked: “Where have you been? You have been missing in action, we haven’t seen you for the longest of time.”
You see when I am lying on my belly. I am more dangerous because I wake up under you and you can’t control that situation
— Gwede Mantashe, ANC national chair and minister of mineral & petroleum resources
Mantashe responded: “You see when I am lying on my belly. I am more dangerous because I wake up under you and you can’t control that situation.”
Anyone want to decode what the man was saying to the young woman?
The real lives of Zulu queens
Meanwhile, down in the Kingdom of the Zulu, a new storm is brewing all because one of King Misuzulu’s wives secretly recorded him swearing at her during a moment that seems to have been fuelled by insobriety.
Hogarth doesn’t have even a single cow, so he is not going to risk a fine from the Zulu royals by commenting on what the king may or may not have said. Save to say, if the monarch can’t even have a sip of his favourite beverage in the comfort of his home without one of those closely associated with him recording him and publishing the video on social media, then the emperor really has no clothes.
And we deserve a team of 12
Speaking of kings, the orange one caused much controversy at the World Cup when he revealed that it was because of his intervention that Fifa, the football governing body, reversed a red card that had been awarded to one of the top strikers on Team USA.
Donald Trump not playing by the rules is nothing new. But even Hogarth was stunned to hear the man who claims to “know a lot of sport” tell the world that he didn’t know what a red card in football meant.
“I didn’t think meant much [the red card], but then I started hearing that it meant he can’t play in the next game … That’s very unfair. It is one thing to penalise somebody for the game, but how do you penalise him for a game that hasn’t been played yet. That’s very unfair,” said Trump.
Given that the US president has so much difficulty with the basic rules, maybe it is time his country invented its own brand of football. Oh wait, it already has … so maybe he should just leave the beautiful game to those nations that can actually play it.
The zen of dealing with Trump
Poor Japan. Since the end of World War 2 it has been going about its business peacefully, not troubling anyone and focusing on being among the best in technology. It also took care to stay on the right side of Washington. But, with the orange one now in charge of the US empire, Japan has a big problem. The other day, addressing European journalists, Trump spoke of a US aircraft carrier that had been the target of 111 missiles shot “by the Islamic Republic of Japan”.
Until that moment, the Japanese had always thought of themselves as a kind of Shinto nation with no interest in launching another Pearl Harbor.
With friends like Trump, Japan does not need enemies.
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