Aunty Pat bumps into Thabo

Should former president Thabo Mbeki and relatively new minister Patricia de Lille meet in the corridors of power, it’s an easy guess the exchange would be anything but convivial.

Given their history in the then parliament when she headed the Pan African Congress and he was president, a strained relationship is a given. Would they greet each other, never mind beginning a conversation? For the sake of decorum and parliamentary passersby in earshot, they would keep up pretences.

It was she who raised the corruption of the notorious arms deal and Mbeki rudely rebuked her and other whistleblowers. So they can’t be classified as good mates. Would an encounter go something like this?

“Hi, Uncle Thabo, how’s it going? Strange to find you here. I would’ve thought parliament is the last place you’d want to be”.

“Good day, Ms De Lille. No. I still have a few friends on the benches who seek purely academic counsel. Tell me though, after having a stab at so many parties, do you have any friends left?”

“Oh yes, Uncle Thabo. I’m still considered a hero for ripping into the ‘you-know-what’ deal. Funny thing how you came up for Jacob – who later had you tossed out? I can’t help wondering if you had known his nefarious intentions, whether you would’ve thrown your weight behind me and the truth.”

“My dear Ms De Lille, what goes around comes around and when it occurs, many will end up with egg on their smug countenances. Anyway, I had had enough, and Jacob was young and could sing and dance, just what the party needed after my dour session”.

“I have empathy, Uncle Thabo. You came under fire so often. Take the HIV/Aids thing. Remember, you criticised the scientific consensus that HIV does cause Aids. It raised a storm. Who could blame you, I mean, your minister of health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was constantly whispering in your ear about veggies and garlic. Tee-hee”.

“Ms De Lille, I don’t appreciate you talking bad about the dead. Manto sincerely believed what she believed. At the time the disease was unknown – and not unlike the present coronavirus – had everybody stumped”.

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