A HOME AWAY FROM HOME
Dubai, it would seem, offers an exotic escape from the humdrum of life in SA — so much so that it’s become a firm favourite with SA leaders
Ihave to confess that I am a tad cross with readers of this august magazine. Why, pray tell, has noone told me there is milk and honey in them thar Dubai hills? I have visited many exotic holiday destinations, but not a single letter has landed on the editor’s desk advising this poor scribe to visit Dubai.
Everyone must have been laughing behind my back. It seems our entire cabinet and the executives of our stateowned enterprises (SOES) are all in on the fact that Dubai is the place to visit.
Suspended Eskom CFO Anoj Singh apparently enjoyed a R10,000 massage at the city’s Oberoi Hotel, courtesy of the Guptas. Yes, R10,000! (This is a family magazine, so no quips about happiness or endings, please.) And last week it emerged that Tom Moyane, our dear tax chief, also visited Dubai.
Now The Times newspaper reports that you don’t just go to Dubai — you congregate with like-minded people in that city at particular times. Like December 2015.
That’s when the Guptas seem to have hauled a number of cabinet ministers and SOE leaders to Dubai. It turns out Moyane’s visit coincided with the presence in the city of all three Gupta brothers — Rajesh, Atul and Ajay — as well as that of President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane, and Thato and Tshepiso “Gift” Magashule, sons of Free State premier Ace Magashule. Anoj “R10,000 a pop” Singh was also there, as was Kim Davids, the executive PA to public enterprises minister Lynne Brown.
Strangely enough, that was also the time that our dear president fired Nhlanhla Nene and replaced him with old “Weekend Special” David Des van Rooyen, our “most qualified finance minister” ever.
The young Sherlock Holmes in me would like to say there is a pattern here. Methinks some people were being paid, or carried some serious hard cash to Dubai for you-know-who. And for themselves. Or maybe they were celebrating what seems to be the great heist of our time: capturing Zuma, his family and the country. Then, it seems, they came back, and the looting continued. What a great country we have.
All this left me a bit depressed — and parched. I had some honestly earned cash in my pocket and all I wanted was a beer. I was also in Kwazulu Natal, the province that, come December, will determine who Zuma’s successor in the ANC will be. So off I went to the Old
Main Brewery in Pietermaritzburg.
This is a very popular brewery (yes, makes its own brew), an old-style, loads-of-wood, English-type pub. It doesn’t look that great during the day, with that winter sadness that engulfs everything, but I imagine it’s quite something in the evenings, with lights and all that.
We sat outside. Our table was dirty, and there was no cloth with which to wipe it. So the two ladies lifted it up and away and brought a new one over.
We didn’t expect much from the food — the usual pub fare was on offer. Well, it wasn’t bad at all: the steak, egg and chips was declared “excellent”; the chicken-and-cheese toasted sandwich was “passable”; and the fish and chips was really good. The champion was the beef and stout pie — I had a taste and even I have to say it was magnificent. It’s not Michelin-star fare, you understand, but it hit the spot.
Oh, and the beer? I had the tasting board of real ale, stout and lager. Delicious. Way more delicious than carrying bags of cash to Dubai.
Old Main Brewery ★★★½
Dennis Shepstone Drive Berry Hill, Pietermaritzburg Tel: (033) 343-3267
★★★★★ Mcebisi Jonas! ★★★★ Excellent ★★★ Good ★★ Poor ★ Tom Moyane it
You don’t just go to Dubai —you congregate with likeminded people in that city at particular times. Like December 2015