Revenue service boss’s TV stint had nation in stitches
Now and again a star appears in our lives to give us momentary relief from the monotony that is our politics. This week it was the turn of one Mmamathe Makhekhe-Mokhuane, the chief officer for digital at the SA Revenue Service.
Now Vera didn’t spend long enough in school to judge if Makhekhe-Mokhuane is suitably qualified to hold this job, but she can say without doubt that Mme Makhekhe-Mokhuane is the most entertaining civil servant to ever appear on our TV screens.
Five minutes of fame
Her very long five minutes of fame began on Wednesday morning, when she appeared as a guest on a TV show hosted by the SABC’s Sakina Kamwendo.
Makhekhe-Mokhuane’s standard answer to difficult questions was to state that she only joined Sars last year. When it became clear that Kamwendo was not satisfied with her answers, she changed tact – telling the interviewer about Sars’s bursary scheme and the fact that it had started in-sourcing its cleaning staff. When Kamwendo tried to remind her that she was in studio to talk about Sars’s IT issues, an irritated Makhekhe-Mokhuane responded: “Mam, can you give me protection from yourself?”
Glutton for punishment
You would think that her embarrassing performance on Kamwendo’s show would have sent MakhekheMokhuane hiding under a rock somewhere for the rest of the week.
But no, a while later she was on TV screens again – this time testifying at the Nugent Commission of Inquiry into tax administration and governance at Sars.
She did not perform any better at the inquiry. Makhekhe-Mokhuane particularly took issue with a member of the panel at the inquiry asking her about her attendance record at Sars senior management meetings.
“I want to put it on record that I am not going to sit here and discuss whether I attended meetings, and operational meetings for that matter, because as and when I get assignments, I get them through the commissioner. I think it is beyond a waste of your time. Your time ... is to look at governance, but not what I do as chief officer, including when I go to the bathroom. With due respect sir, please protect me. Please.”
With due respect to the madam, Vera thinks taxpayers need to be protected from Makhekhe-Mokhuane.
Preaching to the wrong choir
To Vera, however, her best performance came when the Sars IT chief was asked to clarify her comments about staff members who had been at the organisation for far too long.
She veered completely from the subject.
“Drakensberg Boys Choir was established in 1867 and in 2018 girls are still not allowed to sing,” she declared, seemingly offended by the fact.
Vera is afraid to ask if the esteemed Sars executive is actually aware that Drakensberg Boys is called thus because it is a boys-ONLY school.
Bafana’s maths way off
Enough about MakhekheMokhuane, let’s talk about Bafana Bafana. I mean, a girl can take only so much disappointment from the boys. Just the other day, the whole nation was chanting ‘ladooma, ladooma!’ as the boys put six past Seychelles. A few days later, we are all in a state of depression because, suddenly, the boys can’t score?
Baxter’s boys simply can’t count. All they needed was to get six points by winning three points in each of the two games. Instead, they scored six in one, zero in another and ended up with four. I’m not saying girls are better, but if a woman was a Bafana coach she would have told the boys not to be greedy; that they were supposed to score three at home and the other three away, that way their sums would add up.