His Master's Voice Wins "Nkandla Fire Pool" Media Statement of the Year Award

Isn't it about time we created an annual journalism award - with apologies to Gareth van Onselen who thinks we have too many as it is - that will recognise, praise and honour in perpetuity the year's most outrageous Comical Ali statement in a media context?

"We must hold Thulas Nxesi, Siyabonga Cwele, Jeff Radebe and all the members of the so-called security cluster responsible for the Nkandla report in their individual capacities.

"They must be reminded that we will always remember how they sat and, with straight faces, vomited "fire pool", "retaining wall" (with amphitheatre features), tuck shop, chicken run and all sorts of things reserved only for people capable of seeing angels at Madiba's memorial. We will always remember". - Bloke Monnafela, by e-mail, Sunday Times letter page 29/12/2013

One word, "Nkandla", has so come to dominate our political and public discourse that I suggested it form part of a new verb, "Nkandla'd" meaning 'to subvert the course of justice by using the Zuma faction's "Stalingrad" approach (and huge amounts of public money) to cover up corruption and to prevent the consequences of such exposure.'

Despite the best efforts of Hlaudi Motsoeneng, Jimi Matthews and Nyana Molete to censor the news of President Jacob Zuma being booed on the world stage, public outrage about the pervasive, systemic and institutionalised corruption by the Zuma faction of the ANC is growing - as is manifest in Bloke Monnafela's quote, which anchors this column, the open letter by Dr Barney Pityana urging President Jacob Zuma to resign, the Numsa breakaway, e-toll defiance, the Sunday Times poll which showed that the majority of people interviewed wanted Zuma to step down, daily service delivery protests and the depreciating rand as an indicator of investor confidence.

I therefore thought that this was the appropriate time to create an annual journalism award - with apologies to Gareth van Onselen who thinks we have too many as it is - that will recognise, praise and honour in perpetuity the year's most outrageous Comical Ali statement in a media context.

Searching for an award title

To qualify, the statement must seethe with contempt for the intelligence of all South Africans and I was looking for a name for the competition, something emblematic, something that all South Africans would instantly equate with a brazen lie. As Bloke Monnafela's letter to the Sunday Times suggests, the surreal Nkandla "fire pool" with its integral, re-invented "bucket system" is thus completely deserving of becoming the leitmotif, the symbol and the title of this prestigious award...

Read more of this brilliant article by Ed Herbst on allAfrica.com