Did you know that the ANC has its own dictionary? It is used to define words and phrases used by party members. According to this very resourceful item of explanation, the definition of sleeping around is … sleeping around. Most profound. This definition is reiterated again and again … and again in Redi Direko’s live interview with ANC spokesman Floyd Shivambu. It is a wonderfully entertaining thing when a spokesperson – the person hired to articulate and express on behalf of an organisation, manages, so unskilfully, to dodge the simplest of questions. I certainly basked in the hilarity.
In the well publicised mud-slinging match between Helen Zille and the ANC Youth League, the league is quoted as saying “Zille has appointed an all-male cabinet of useless people, majority of whom are her boyfriends and concubines so that she can continue to sleep around with them, yet she claims to have the moral authority to question our President (sic)”. The meaning of “sleeping around” has been called into question by members of the public, following ANC Youth League’s allegation that sleeping around in fact does not refer to the act of sex with multiple partners. After much public outcry and confusion, the league has adamantly asserted their right to defend their words and talk show host Redi Direko gives them the chance.
So the million dollar question is: what did the ANC mean when it said that Zille is “sleeping around”? At the outset of the 702 interview, Shivambu initially implies that because Zille’s cabinet is “useless”, she is “sleeping around”. When Direko calls into question the logic of such an assumption and asks Shivambu to explain further, the spokesman answers “sleeping around is sleeping around”. When Direko asks Shivambu what this means, he replies “our explanation of sleeping around is that she is sleeping around” and qualifies his answer with “we say what we mean and we mean what we say”. Now things make sense! WTF? The phrase “sleeping around is sleeping around” is repeated no less that twelve times throughout the five-minute interview. In frustration Direko aptly states that anyone with a brain knows that sleeping around denotes promiscuous sex. But if nothing else, Shivambu is consistent and merely repeats “sleeping around is sleeping around” – just to clarify the matter. The spokesman does get remotely close to an answer when he tells Direko that Zille is a “political prostitute” and when Direko then asks the ANC spokesman to clarify that statement he says (yup, you guessed it) “sleeping around is sleeping around”. Perhaps the comment was meant to have a metaphoric interpretation as opposed to a literal one – at least, that’s how I would have spun it. But if the ANC Youth League spokesman cannot articulate that concept then it is most likely not a likely interpretation. So literally is how the public will interpret the league’s statement as no other explanation has been offered. Shivambu ends the call by telling Direko to “please grow up in the future when you speak about these things”.
Amidst the tears of laughter streaming down my face as I listen to the ridiculous answers given by the spokesman, I feel a tad unsettled in the knowledge that the organisation representing the future of the party that holds an overwhelming majority of support in South Africa is fronted by someone as inarticulate and thoughtless as Floyd Shivambu.
As Zanin mentioned the other day, Floyd Shivambu is a bloody idiot and by that I mean he is a bloody idiot. I say what I mean and I mean what I say.
Although I had an amazing laugh at all of this I am saddened that anyone remotely as “moronic” as that has any involvement in a country where my family and friends live. WTF is the only way to explain it.
Ditto the Maschwitzer. It seems to be the continuous South African tradition of appointing completely inept individuals for roles they have not the expertise to fill. Shivambu has the vocubulary of a flea and the brain of a grain of sand.
Personally, I think that the South African government has done a great all around job of ensuring that more morons and idiots are trained up to be the leaders and people in charge. To make matters worse they seem to have no problem flouting these dimwits as their ambassadors.
I echo. WTF!!!