Snake bit off too much to chew MPs’ debates ring hollow
EITHER love them, or hate them – you cannot be indifferent to the tropical house geckos that moved into our area about 30 years ago and multiplied significantly in and around our homes.
The Chiel has had much to say (usually negative, I’m afraid) about these small reptiles.
There is no doubt, however, that they are here to stay; and although we may not like them, particularly in our homes, we’re just going to have to grin and bear them. Ho hum! What brings me to writing about them today is an intriguing story and photos about a snake that took on a gecko but, unfortunately for the snake, bit off a lot more than it could chew – literally.
It all started in Jimmy and Janet Calder’s Parklands cottage garden, off Jarvis Road in East London.
Janet came across the grisly scene one morning this month – a small common water snake which died while attempting to swallow a tropical house gecko.
Being the avid naturalist she is, she picked up snake and gecko, put them in a bag in her fridge overnight, and next day took them to the East London Museum.
Museum senior naturalist Kevin Cole was enthusiastic about what she had found. “This is a good natural history record and Bayworld [Port Elizabeth] Museum herpetologist Werner Conradie would like the gecko specimen to be sent to THE proposition by the NFP in parliament during Tuesday’s debate on the President’s State of the Nation Address – that the government must reserve the right to run small businesses in townships and villages for South Africans – only needs to be applauded.
Every time I listen to the MPs debating in parliament about the problems and challenges of the people, I wonder if they understand that they are supposed to be leading reasonable human individuals.
These parliamentarians want to debate in parliament without our mandate. They do not call any meeting with their so-called constituencies to obtain mandate. Nor do they report back from parliament.
As a result most of the issues they articulate with regard to support for the co-operatives flies directly back into their faces because we, the people in the street, know that what is being claimed to be done is not being done.
The co-operatives are actually not being supported by the government’s departments – even the 30% that is alleged to have been set aside for them for government procurement. In reality it is not there.
I belong to a bakery co-operative which has been in operation since 2010. The government has never procured our bread. Despite our numerous attempts, the local hospitals continue procuring from the big commercial bakeries.
This makes a mockery of the claims the government makes in parliament, that they support the small co-ops. — Zwelibangile Modi, Ezibeleni