Muckraker

Life is not your mother

Published

2 weeks ago

September 12, 2023

YOU can always count on journalists to mangle ideas and dish them out as stories and analyses. One newspaper recently sprayed readers with some moshed ideas under the guise of a story.
The subject was Thabo Sekonyela’s appointment as government spokesperson. Predictably the story became his age, not his fitness for the job. Faceless sources were wheeled out to pummel what were essentially feelings until they became what the journalist thought were ideas.

We were told of faceless RFP sources whinnying that Sekonyela is not fit for the job because he is supposed to have retired. Another nameless source moaned about the government giving a job to a 59-year-old when there are hoards of unemployed youths.
Those who suspected the journalist could have concocted the so-called sources to vent out their own frustration at the government were probably justified.
Many journalists who appointed themselves cheerleaders for the RFP are getting mental about being kicked further from the crumbs they thought they deserved. It serves them right. Bootlicking, especially by journalists, should never be rewarded.

Still, such vile bitterness is no reason to foist nonsense on readers. There is no proof that Sekonyela’s age renders him incompetent for the job.
He should be judged by his performance, not some inane idea that he has stolen a job that should have been handed to some young person.
Youth is not a qualification. Nor is it synonymous with competence. Some of the most inept people Muckraker has encountered are young. The same goes for mediocre thinkers. The majority of functionally illiterate people in this country are considered young.

Many of the young people working as spokespersons of ministries and departments have no clue about their jobs. Most cannot spell their names under pressure. Many have neither the will nor the skill to write a simple correct sentence in Sesotho, English or slang.

Their press statements would not pass a mid-term Form E exam. That explains why this government cannot communicate simple things. It mumbles things it should shout. Its public relations officers hide under rocks in times of crisis. Many don’t even know what is happening in their ministries.
Those who know are either too timid to speak or they simply promise to call back and then switch off their phones.
One told Muckraker that she was sleeping at 7pm. Another has a terrible habit of referring everything to his superiors. The other is known for saying “that is news to me” to every question.

Yet another requests written answers and then calls a press conference. There is therefore no evidence that a young person performs better than an old one. The youth of this country should stop being crybabies. They are not entitled to anything. This country is not their mother.
This current generation of so-called youths is probably the worst this country has ever seen. It thinks posting feelings on social media is being smart.
It pretends as if its education is unique and therefore entitles them to jobs and opportunities. Nyoe, nyoe, we the youth are the future…. Blah, blah, blah the youth deserve …. Many are always looking for excuses or someone to blame for their misery. It’s the government, the education system, capitalism etc.

They are obsessed with things they cannot afford, from drinks to fashion. They want it all now as if they were sired by some rich folks or have some vulgar inheritance waiting for them.
Spend an hour in their group and you would think their grandfathers invented Lamborghini. They don’t think much, they just feel.
Original ideas are some strange things that should not bother their minds. Yes, there are some smart young people but the majority will sell their mothers for bus fare and a bottle of beer. Many are not the ‘future’ but a problem of this country.

If the youth of this country were so smart this country would not have a single MP over 40. They would elect their peers instead of stuffing parliament with the same grandmothers and grandfathers whose only claim to fame is to snore in parliament.
Instead, they elect old people and then wonder why old people are hired. Muckraker’s advice: Keep complaining and see if the old people care.

Nka! Ichuuuuuuuuuuuu

muckracker.post@gmail.com

Muckraker

The not so noble Ashraf

Published

4 days ago

September 22, 2023

The Post

English has never been our mother. It abandons us in times of trouble, especially when cornered. The best time to judge a person’s eloquence in English is when they are in distress. Walim Ashraf, the man accused of stealing M7.4 million, lost his English bundles last week when he was caught in a blue lie.

His bail hearing was going well until a DCEO investigator told the prosecutor that he was emitting lies with a straight face. He had told the court that his three children and wife were in South Africa. He even added that children were schooling in South Africa. That sounded plausible and the court appeared to have taken his word for it until the prosecutor announced that his wife and three children were in fact in India. Bingo!

Caught in the lie, Ashraf mumbled an apology before telling the court that “it was a slip of the tongue”.
In other words, his tongue has slipped and called South Africa India.

At that moment, Ashraf believed that claiming that your family is in South Africa when they are in India is a “slip of the tongue”.

The phrase he was looking for is: “I am a pathetic liar”. A slip of the tongue is a minor mistake in speech, not a fictitious relocation of your family from India to South Africa. Muckraker will not pass judgement on his charges.

Suffice to say Ashraf is an Arabic name meaning ‘most honourable one’ or ‘very noble’. Tongues that claim to have slipped when they are lying are not so noble.

Nka! Ichuuuuuuuuuuuu

muckracker.post@gmail.com

Muckraker

Its squeaky bum time

Published

4 days ago

September 22, 2023

The Post

Uncle Sam and his leadership should not be surprised that the opposition is now grabbing them by the collar. They played into the government’s hands by making hasty and emotional decisions.

The suspension of the three MPs has now triggered a backlash that might topple the government.
The opposition is smelling blood and getting ready to pounce.

Even if Uncle Sam’s government survives the next storm, the opposition will keep coming. They are possessed by the spirit of destruction.
The next few years will be tsunami after tsunami.
Nothing motivates a politician more than the prospect of finishing off a wounded opponent.
Muckraker is tempted to say the RFP still has a chance to regroup and fight from one corner but that would be false. The trust has been broken and the wounds are too deep.

Those who have been suspended want revenge. Mediation is a waste of time. Nothing is ever forgiven and forgotten in politics.
Muckraker’s humble advice to Uncle Sam and his people is that they should stock up on painkillers because there are more pounding headaches on the way.
Keep some pills at home, office, office toilet, back pocket, handbag, wallet and even bra.

Mapesela will not rest until he is back in government and proudly messing up things.
He is beating war drums.
Uncle Sam and his people had better learn to play dirty because this is a rough game. Bones will be broken and bodies bruised.

Nka! Ichuuuuuuuuuuuu

muckracker.post@gmail.com

Muckraker

Rough riders

Published

4 days ago

September 22, 2023

The Post

Spare a prayer for Uncle Sam as he walks on the glowing coals that is Lesotho’s politics. Call your prophets, fake and real, because the demons of Lesotho’s politics are at the gates.

Bring both fire and water because these are not Mickey Mouse demons. Leave the pigs out of this one, I beg. We still need fariki after exorcising the evil spirits. As usual, you need the powers of a potent wizard to decipher why the opposition is gathering wood for a pyre to burn both the government and its leader. That it’s such a hotchpotch betrays the fact that the reasons are contrived rather than real.

Even if they are real, none of them justifies toppling a government so soon.
And none of the opposition leaders could claim, without the usual dose of embellishment, that the so-called ‘reasons’ have come from the people. There is no scale to weigh the people’s disgust at Uncle Sam and his people.

There is no reason to pretend that those plotting to whip Uncle Sam out of office are doing it for the people who voted less than a year ago. This is just another group of excitable and power-mongering zealots cooking up reasons to justify their attempt to instigate a power grab.

You hear from their flawed logic when they exuberantly claim that it is their right to bring a no-confidence vote against the government.
They pull out that trump card even when no one has accused them of any criminality. They do it to sanitise and deodorise their brazen usurpation of the people’s power.
It’s their way of justifying why a group of less than 50 people who lost an election now has both the power and the nerve to topple a government supported by thousands of Basotho. Oops, that’s a lie. This a decision of less than 10 political leaders who are now shopping around for other MPs to support their decision.
Yes, toppling a government in parliament is not illegal. Yes, the opposition can do it. But the pertinent question is whether this is what Basotho want and it’s good for Lesotho.

Who has told the politicians that this is what the people want? Who did they consult, when and how?
Yes, Uncle Sam is fumbling and dithering. Yes, some of his ministers behave like rabbits caught in headlights on the Main North 1 Road. True, some of the appointments stink of nepotism.
But all these are nothing new or outrageous. We have seen worse from the very people now screaming their lungs out. It’s not as if the opposition now has a low tolerance for tosh.

After all, they are the very masters of tosh. This is not about service delivery or some transgressions.
This is about power and resources. Not power to serve Basotho. Not resources to share with Basotho. It is about the power to shove in their armpits while they munch the resources. That is why they keep telling us what Uncle Sam has done wrong instead of saying why they think they will do better.
They are not saying they will screw us softly this time around. No promise to go easy on the looting. Nothing about limiting the number of rats in the granary. They don’t even have the decency to promise to move from F to E.

As far as they are concerned, we just have to stand by and watch while they kick out Uncle Sam and then cheer as they march back to do more of the same. This is the contempt they have for the people. We elect governments that MPs have the power to topple willy-nilly while claiming to be acting on our behalf. We have been screwed before but these are rough riders. Phew!

Nka! Ichuuuuuuuuuuuu

muckracker.post@gmail.com