Downtown Geneva, beneath snowy mountains. Image: iStock
The problem with arrogance – which many ANC apparatchiks have in abundance – is that it often makes you speak before you think.
For Minister of Communications, Telecommunications and Postal Services Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, her belief in her own importance and invincibility (based on the powerful Ministerial Handbook) meant she was more interested in smacking down a TV interviewer’s questions on her European trip than in getting her words right.
Angrily, she said: “I have never been to Switzerland. My husband has never been to Switzerland. We went to Geneva and New York” to do government business … and broke no rules in the process.
Other than geographic rules, of course … because one would have expected a government official being paid around R2 million a year might be expected to know that Geneva is in Switzerland.
Ndabeni-Abrahams later tried to correct her error – which provided days of mirth for social media users – by saying she meant to say France, not Switzerland.
The whole way she dealt with the question, though, echoed the incident last year when she tried to prevent the SABC recording a contentious gathering … as if she owns the public broadcaster.
Once the laughter has subsided, that arrogance still remains. If geography is unimportant to our leaders, what chance do truth and integrity stand?
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
