THE WEEK IN WORDS
It’s Dale Steyn, not some average guy from down the road. He’s one of the best fast bowlers the country’s ever produced, if you look him in the eyes and ask ‘Dale, can you make it?’ and he says he can, then he’s given that opportunity. – Proteas coach Ottis Gibson says he’ll put Steyn straight back into the Proteas Test team for the Boxing Day encounter with Zimbabwe. You people’s conduct is just
weird. – Judge Bert Bam to witnesses, including a doctor, nurse, teacher and social worker, who noted injuries to 3-year-old Louisa “Poppie” van der Merwe in the period before she died last year, but did nothing. Her stepfather, Kobus Koekemoer, 44, and her mother, Louisa Koekemoer, 46, are on trial for her death in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. They pleaded not guilty. We have heard that the statement we made did not boost confidence. Of course we hold a different view. We couldn’t go before the country and spin ourselves to no end. We could have gone to the midterm budget statement and said all is well, then everyone goes home happy only to realise the
numbers do not tally. – Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba at a business breakfast in Durban this week. We’re not trained to fight crime, we’re trained to make war. We don’t take nonsense. If you point a gun at us, we mow you down. – SANDF chief General Solly Shoke at his annual media briefing at Waterkloof Air Force Base outside Pretoria, on the army’s willingness to heed Police Minister Fikile Mbalula’s appeal for the army to be deployed into crime-ridden townships. Winning is not the most important thing; however, wanting to win is. – Wayne Coetzer, general manager of The Oyster Box, after the hotel was named the best five-star hotel in the country last weekend. Why did they kill him? He was still young, only to be killed by murderers who only care about making money at the expense of innocent lives. I believe that this is some feud over taxi routes and people have fallen victims in this war among taxi bosses. Many people have been killed when the taxi people attack one another. – Stompie Khoza, aunt of Khetho Thwala, a teacher killed when gunmen opened fire on a bakkie carrying a taxi boss and four bodyguards. The bakkie veered out of control and hit a taxi carrying teachers, outside Ladysmith.