South Africa

People have been decapitated for less. When Murphy Morobe says that R700 000 is "a drop in the ocean" in reference to Phumzile's flite of fancy, he is being more than disengenuous - he's being outright ridiculous and insensitive. I could almost imagine him, if he'd been around just before the French Revolution, loudly cheering "hear, hear!" as Marie Antoinette declared "let them eat cake".

Showing just how out of touch some our new elite are, we have this fine write-up in The Star of what we could have got for that R700 000 -

For 22 families, it's a roof over their heads for life. And with 2,4 million other families on the RDP waiting list, every house counts....At least 150 infected people could have received a triple antiretroviral cocktail for a year - or Manto Tshabalala-Msimang could have dished out about 280 000 potato-garlic-beetroot portions...The R700 000 could also have been spent making the country safer by putting 23 entry-level cops on the beat for a year. A constable starting out can earn as little as R2 500 a month. Or 300 bulletproof vests could have been bought for the boys and girls in blue, who're vulnerable to increasingly violent attacks. If the government chose to go the education route, it could have put 14 teachers behind blackboards for a year. Or paid the annual fees of 140 pupils at a government high school, or bought about 10 000 textbooks....

The list goes on...Personally I like the Deputy Prez. and I hope this slip in judgement on her part won't be repeated and she will be able to move forward after learning a good lesson