In the hope of cobbling together words that hopefully lead to a congruent discussion, I found myself at odds with the whole debacle surrounding the ‘doings’ of the deputy Health Minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. Said Deputy Minister knew very well what the consequences at play were, as anyone who has ever worked in a corporate environment can attest to; one can push the envelope but as long as one plays the game, all is fine.

As for her sacking, Ministers are appointed by the President and as such, if the President feels that a change is necessary, he will act accordingly; irrespective of how the public feels about it.

But the after-the-fact flinging of conspiracies at any available switched-on-mike, in the hope of canvassing public pity, is a well employed ploy. It is well understood that public opinion is short lived, thus the holding of regular press interviews and casually dropping clandestine sounding statements that, in essence, say a lot but carry no substance, deserves a nod of appreciation.

For the moment, public pity and Union cadres will carry her case far and wide, but as any media buff knows, it will all come to pass as new news takes centre stage. Point in question: the newly published inference that Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s liver transplant could be due to her imbuement of the ‘good life.’

I for one do not care one way or another: its all part of the political game plan that we can only surmise to. All we can do is hope that, come next election, we chose wisely.

Ends