INVITATION
An evening with two authors at the VC Netwox Book Club.
Interview * Discussion * Signing
E TV news anchor Norma Young will interview the two authors before we open the discussion to the audience.
Are Affirmative Action tokens just prostitutes, no different from the ladies of the night?
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Dumped by two men ….in a space of minutes
Monday 12 May, 4:28: “I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but Xolela …..” This is probably the worst message any event organiser wants to hear – the cancellation of an event. I couldn’t even listen to the rest of the message before my heart started racing, head throbbing and the usual deep sunken feeling in my stomach I get when I am nervous, engulfed my body.
Monday 12 May 4.30: I had hardly recovered when the “ping” sound from my computer went off, signalling the arrival of an email. It was from the Marketing & PR Officer at UKZN Press (a wonderful woman). “I just received an email from Xolela … .”. “Heck, I’m still wobbly from the phone message. Purlees”, I thought.
Monday 12 May 4.32: And as I was reading Xolela’s “unfortunate” message – “mbzzzz”. It’s my cellphone. I receive an sms I had been waiting for the entire day to confirm the time of a meeting with a Mr Makhanya for that evening. Bang! Nope, no meeting. “How about tomorrow?”. Eish, not another dumping.
Anyway, back to Xolela.
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The Netwox Book Club is back! Our first author of the season is Xolela Mancgu, political commentator and newspaper columnist, who will read from his book, To the Brink, in which he analyses the current state of our democracy – which he described on a television programme recently as a “decade of disappointment”.
Aids, Zimbabwe, corruption, the tendency to label black critics as sellouts and coconuts, and whites’ refusal to adapt to change – Mangcu rips apart the climate which has shaped “our political culture with grave public policy consequences”.
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“What’s up?” is the question I seem to be getting from everywhere these days. And strange as it may sound, until this past Saturday, I was unable to answer.
I couldn’t, simply because I had no answer. That in itself is strange for me given that I’m not one who never has nothing to say.
There has been quite a bit of uncertainty in my life since the start of the year. As some may know, after the many burglaries at VC House I had last year, I caved into criminals and decided to move office. I tried, without much success, to sell or let my office. And so, with every hope that the office will be released from my hands, I have struggled to plan properly.
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In these dark days, nothing sweeter than winning – alcohol at that!
Nothing could be sweeter than starting the year as a Winner. And so, when I received the good news from my man Ben, that I had won a case of wine for dissing Eskom over its load shedding, I was thoroughly thrilled.
I’m not a wine drinker but at the time, I thought I would use the box for my VC Netwox wine-guzzling guests.
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How can business flourish under such hostility?
Its hard to believe that businesses are able to operate in South Africa under the current environment of high levels of crime and inefficiency – that’s the only way we can explain Eskom’s load shedding – and no, I am not interested in the usual “reasons” of apartheid legacy infrastructural backlog. We have had 13 years to plan people!
Even as I write this, I am under extreme pressure to beat the latest threat of another load shedding!
Anyway, back to books. I am a bit late with this post and please blame it on Jackie Selebi’s criminal friends, Eskom’s load shedding, Telkom’s never ending problems with cable thieves, and insurance companies’ inefficiency.
At Risk at VC Netwox » read more
After months of self imposed book reading exile, I am back. And like all forms of exile, you manage to “snub” friends and most things that truly matter, during this period. In my case, I managed to turn my back on my blog, my book club and one of my favourite people, Ben – Editor of Book SA. In fact, I lie, he gave up on me. Thankfully, it’s not everyone who gave up on me.
A handful of VC Netwox fans wouldn’t stop nagging. And in fact, I threatened one with a charge of stalking if he didn’t stop phoning me every other day to find out if there was a book reading session. Gosh what a bloody nag. Actually this guy needs to get a life. As much as it may be flattering, he cannot rely on VC Netwox to prop his social life.
Fred and Khosi Read for us
So, first up is a book reading session with Fred Khumalo and Nomakhosazana Xaba, reading from At Risk, on 2nd November 2007 at VC House (19 Monkor Road – Randpark Ridge – JHB; map; Tel: 011 476 9203; Email: info@vulindlelacomm.co.za; homepage).
A bit late with this on my own blog – but had to post it here, seeing as I also posted it to Fred Khumalo’s blog!
This in response to his piece, “The Unbearable Starkness of Being… Suresh“, which mentions an incident at the VC Netwox Book Club last month.
No, no Fred, my friend. You got it factually and contextually wrong about the “boy from Atteridgeville” and your “unlikeable”. Yes, Suresh didn’t take kindly to the question, but so were many people in the audience who felt the question was stereotypical and therefore offensive.
No, no, no insults either. Unless describing someone as akin to racists is. Remember a story the Sunday Times ran about research conducted which said blacks are more racist to one-another than other groups? I thought it was bull then and I still think it is now. Is Ryland Fisher, whom you refer us to, alluding to that?
You might love him, you might hate him, but have you heard him?
Ronald Suresh Roberts, author of Fit to Govern: the Native Intelligence of Thabo Mbeki, will give a reading at the VC Netwox Book Club this Friday evening.
Suresh has appeared at the Club before, and Netwox regulars know that he’s anything but dull. All are welcome – the event is free and open to the public. (See details below.)
As always, the book will be available for sale after the reading. Here’s your chance to snare a signed copy of one of the few titles currently on the market capable of capturing a kilometre’s-worth of column inches!
I came back from the CT Book Fair to find a full in-tray. Couldn’t even deal with it before I went off to the official end-of-mourning ceremony for my aunt.
After a year of mourning, it was time for her to throw away her ugly black frock (the only one she’s worn for the entire year) and don a new outfit. I had the honour of being invited to witness the ritual of tossing the mourning clothes. Its a very private matter that shouldn’t really be discussed openly even though I did reveal a few tid bits to my cousins, much to the outrage of the elders.
I will say though, just how unfair to women this tradition is. Firstly, only women have to mourn for this long. In addition, there are a host of rules they have to adhere to during this period. They include a barrage of no-go areas, restrictions on the time she can be away from her house, the chair she sits on (she can only sit on a chair given to her by in-laws and in my aunt’s case it was a highly uncomfortable piece of stool), etc. This obviously deprives women of their right of movement and association, and for a year! It just is very cruel.
