No speech needed to realise true state of the nation

We have received a letter from our complex’s board of trustees which caused quite a stir in the Lotriet household.

“We request that when sending us communications, you do so in a polite and respectful manner. We do not appreciate personal attacks,” the trustees wrote to the residents.

“As members of the body corporate, we implore you to come forward with any issues you have, whether it is regarding maintenance, conduct rules, security, management etc. We can all work together to get the major issues within the complex sorted before they get out of hand.”

“How dare they!” I exploded.

“What’s wrong?” the lovely Snapdragon asked. “Their requests seem perfectly reasonable.”

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“Exactly,” I replied. “How dare they be perfectly reasonable? They didn’t even make spelling errors which I can point out!”

We have lived in this complex for a half-dozen years. During that time, I have been in several wars with a series of boards.

One year I even turned an AGM into a riot which forced the chair to resign.

But recently, our drunken, violent neighbours moved out and were replaced by a friendly, quiet young couple.

Our managing agents appointed an efficient portfolio manager to deal with our complex. And now this – reasonable trustees.

How on earth must I be myself in such intolerable conditions? I’ll probably even support our board of trustees if the present state of bliss continues. Like an old man.

Luckily, we still have our national government to upset me.

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I wrote this column before last night’s Sona address, but most of us don’t need a speech to realise the true state of the nation.

Load shedding, potholes, corruption, fuel prices, a terminally ill economy, crime, a dysfunctional healthcare system…our government never fails to deliver.

Will we ever reach a point where we can take pride in the standard of our education system, where we don’t have dozens of worries about a Covid-19 vaccination programme, where Uncle Cyril is as proud of our health workers as he is of Cuban doctors, where people don’t complain about having to be at work every day?

I don’t know. But I must now focus the fire in my belly on that battle, thanks to those damn reasonable trustees. A luta continua!

Dirk Lotriet.

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