Amazing Spider-Man gets my vote
ANC foot soldiers embark on randela drive among elite
GIVEN his intellect, charisma and beguiling smile, it was no wonder that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan was as mesmerising to guests as the coveted Sankara stones from Indiana Jones and
the Temple of Doom.
The polished Gordhan, undoubtedly one of the ANC’s more popular “foot soldiers”, plied ANC-partial guests — from property moguls to architects and lawyers to entrepreneurs — with logic, numbers and nostalgia in a 25-minute election gig aimed at securing their vote and randelas at the 11th-floor Sky Venue in Coastlands Umhlanga.
Austerity was not on the agenda that night but Gordhan was frank in acknowledging the party’s challenges of corruption and greed.
Perhaps it was a good thing that the table that drew everyone’s attention, with its glaringly empty chairs and lonely table tag bearing the name of controversial Tongaat mall-developer Jay Singh, was unoccupied.
Poverty, inequality and unemployment was the mantra Gordhan invoked in his compelling outreach to guests and by and large the majority needed little convincing to come to the party.
EThekwini speaker Logie Naidoo, who was the evening’s programme director, added some humour with his typical
Minister Yunus Carrim was speaking from the same hymn sheet
comic routine. A fact that did not escape Gordhan, who joked that Naidoo, like the South African economy, needed to be transformed, as Naidoo was using the same jokes again and again.
Nine floors below, Gordhan’s colleague, Communications Minister Yunus Carrim was speaking from the same hymn sheet to a mainly Muslim audience at the Minara Chamber of Commerce’s 20th year of freedom celebrations.
Also at a fundraising platform, at which mayor James Nxumalo and KwaZulu-Natal finance MEC Ina Cronje spoke, chamber president Solly Suleman — who had just arrived from an overseas trip (because he did not travel on Malaysian airlines, as he joked) — urged the invited members to use their vote productively.
Carrim was also candid in his 25minute pitch, addressing the concerns over minority representation in the draft Employment Equity bill, and the president’s popularity and credibility (or lack thereof) post-Nkandla.
However, he also urged guests to break down racial barriers.
The ANC could not be accused of wooing voters by wining and dining them. There were definite moans from some guests who complained about paying for drinks (non-alcoholic at the Minara function) despite having forked out a thousand bucks a plate for the night’s festivities.
The following evening, Ster-Kinekor provided a welcome and action-packed distraction to the elections with a preview screening of The Amazing
Spider-Man 2 at Gateway. Guests revelled in the action-hero costume theme adding to a fun vibe.
From iceblonde wigs favoured by Storm, to black leather pants and ears depicting Catwoman, Spidey fans were kept on the edge of their seats in the electrifying, 142-minute film.
It was worth the red eyes on Friday morning.