Any guesses as to what 2024 will bring?
It’s time to go dig out the old Goombay Dance Band album and crank up Christmas at Sea until the grandchildren vomit on their iPads.
Boney M’s Best Christmas Songs will also do the trick, especially if you play their version of Little Drummer Boy.
My son says it makes him want to cry.
Yes readers, it’s December and the end of another year is in sight.
According to the South African zodiac calendar, my friends in Gauteng say that for them, it was the Year of No Tap Water, while my parents in the Free State reckon it was the Year of Zero Municipal Services.
Here in Zululand, in this giant opencast coal mine we’re living in, 2023 was the Year of the Thousands of Trucks.
But with 2024 being an election year, we kind of know what to expect, for the first quarter at least: January will be the month of many empty promises.
February without a doubt the month of more empty promises, while March will be the month of the desperate politician – making ridiculous promises.
And April will be the month of the political party T-shirt, when the gullible majority make their
X’s next to stage eight loadshedding, a murder rate higher than Wednesday’s PowerBall and limitless government corruption.
Still, I’m quite optimistic about what 2024 might hold.
Not because Cyril has a plan plus a commission of enquiry ready for when the money to implement his plan is stolen, but because I still love staying in Africa.
We might not have electricity for half the day, and we might not have an honest government, but we have other things that a lot of other countries don’t.
I guess you don’t believe me and now want me to give a few examples of how good we have it in Mzansi?
I’m thinking…
Okay, I’m not quite sure why I like living here so much, but I do, and I don’t want to live anywhere else in the world.
I like the people too, even though many insist on voting us into irreversible poverty.
I don’t like our sneaky politicians though.
So, if I survive Jingle Bells on repeat, during my once-a-year unavoidable mall Christmas visit, I will tackle 2024 with a new battery and a roof covered with more solar panels than tiles, and get on with it.
Whatever the bones say will happen, I for one, and I hope you too, will deal with it.
Merry Christmas, readers.