Comics have a field day at conference

FORGET about who the delegates at the ANC’s 54th national conference believe should succeed President Jacob Zuma – Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma is the preferred choice for comedians.

Veteran comedian Kagiso Lediga believes the most caustic comics would acquire great material for gags in a Dlamini Zuma presidency.

“For comedy, I think comrade NDZ (Dlamini Zuma) would be the funnier president, because she seems so serious. She just has that look that says: ‘What the hell are you saying about me’ – like she will moer you with a slap,” Lediga joked, motioning a back-hand slap which Dlamini Zuma, he believed, would supposedly deliver.

Speaking to The Star yesterday, Lediga enthused about how much fun it was for comedians to make jokes about people who take themselves seriously.

But, Lediga said, a Dlamini Zuma victory would be a double-edged sword, as he believed her sternness could be detrimental to his career as a comedian.

“She (Dlamini Zuma) is good at stopping things. She stopped people smoking in public with her smoking ban – which was a good thing. But the next thing you know, she will stop freedom of speech, and people like me will be out of a job.”

Dlamini Zuma was a fervent anti-smoking campaigner during her tenure as health minister between 1994 and 1999, leading to the enactment of the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act the following year.

Lediga said he was thoroughly enjoying being a media guest. “It (the conference) feels like a township wedding, but one of politics… It’s like a R100 million township wedding, where people vote for their favourite uncle or aunt – depending on where you sit,” he said.

Dlamini Zuma is taking on ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, who Lediga said would be his choice if he could vote. The comedian believed it was time to usher in a new brand of corruption.

“I like the uncle (Ramaphosa) a lot because I believe he will bring in a new style of corruption versus the old style. You know how corruption works; we have to move it around a bit. We can’t stick with the same brand of corruption with the same family – give it to other families.”

Chester Missing, the puppet “political analyst”, who is controlled by ventriloquist Conrad Koch – has also been spotted around the conference venue, where he has been delivering his unique take on the tense gathering.

Dlamini Zuma would inspire comedians