No doubt,
the Big Five are one of the foremost assets of South Africa: Lion, elephant,
leopard, rhino and buffalo. What may sound like a counting rhyme for children ...
Edward, the leopard, and Brian, the lion,
met, you know, a rhino and a buffalo.
But in their blighty nighty´s jive
they scarcely looked like mighty five.
.. used to be a hunters´ denomination, meaning the
wild animals most dangerous to hunt in Africa. In the iSimangaliso Wetland Park
in St. Lucia, Natal, they even boast the Big Seven, including hippo and crocodile...
And then arrived by omnibus
erstwhile from the isle
a dripping hippopotamus
accompanied by crocodile.
“Now we are, thanks heaven,
a giant squad of seven!”
Then, however, we
keep looking for the Big Six to fill the gap. But no need to worry. We´ve found
them. They have in fact been here all the time, but no one seems to have
noticed them: Only recently we have been reminded that the most powerful
day-to-day body of the ruling ANC are indeed the Top Six headed by Cyril
Ramaphosa, the newly elected party president. There they are the Big Six, the
most important animals of all responsible of the majority political party that
has been running the country and endeavors to do so for the years to come in
spite of the immense harm its representatives have done or allowed to be done
to this country. How they will fare is still written in the stars, all the more
as most of them have had their share in the disastrous last years. So meanwhile
we can resort to another children´s counting rhyme:
David raided as medusa
some unity for him, Mabuza,
while Gwede blows tirades,
as erstwhile he evades.
Still stressy Jessy à la
carte
plays a messyful Duarte
and Mashatile Paul
does not agree at all.
In any case do not forget
Ace Magashule as a threat
and one who also could
serve as a link to
Saxonwold.
Freshly awakened as tribune
and with his past not quite
in tune
now Cyril girds them all,
a herder until
overhaul.
These are the biggest
animals
dwelling in Luthuli House
who do the land in eyewash
douse
pretending they are
radicals.
Guest commentary by Klaus Stadtmuller
