Lesley’s Perspective: Living the blessed life
Our former president really puts the sugar in 'sugar daddy'.
Every week I look forward to Monday.
Not only do I get to go to my terrific job at this legend newspaper, but (drum roll please) Mondays are mom’s night off cooking.
I typically work late on a Monday, subbing articles for that week’s edition after tucking both my boys into bed. There is definitely no time to cook.
About half way through my last pregnancy where I was too nauseous to cook most nights anyway, my mom came up with an ingenious solution.
Her longtime housekeeper cooks both our households’ dinner on a Monday! Josephine Khuzwayo’s cooking has the power to transport me directly back to my childhood.
It’s time travel by the speed of aroma.
Steak and kidney pie with homemade pastry, quiche like you have never tasted, rich cottage pie my husband salivates over and the creme de la creme of chicken pies. . . you get the idea.
Every Monday I get to, in a small way, be a child again. That magical time when I was the one being looked after instead of the one doing the looking after.
My childhood was such a carefree time. It pains me to think about how few children can say the same (another reason why the Orphan Fund is such an important part of our business).
Childhood should be one endless game in which you can always find faeries at the bottom of the garden.
I recently saw a slogan for a kid’s activity programme: ‘Let’s teach our children to play’.
It struck me that while the programme may be excellent and very good for kids to do, the one thing you should not have to teach a child is how to play.
Play and the imagination come quite naturally to children. I guess this is for the kids who are allowed to watch copious amounts of TV and given iPads and phones to play with instead of developing their minds and bodies.
Just this morning I was in my castle with my just three year old, fighting off monsters and dragons.
The game ended with a hunt for some impala and a braai (because fighting monsters is hungry work) and Daniël drove to the shops “in his little car” to fetch a few much-needed things to braai with. The only props we had were a sheet, a toy gun and the braai tongs from the kitchen cupboard.
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It appears that I am not the only one living the blessed life. Local lady Nonkanyiso Conco Zuma (‘Zuma’ was added to her Facebook account on Sunday) is next in line to marry the former president after giving birth to his 23rd official child (born on April 12, coincidentally also Zuma’s birthday).
Our former president really puts the sugar in ‘sugar daddy’.
His latest flame is more than 50 years his junior.
The rather luscious 24 year old lives in the exclusive Hilltop Estate alongside Zimbali – a home Zuma has installed her in?
The friendship is also said to go back some time. In 2013, when she was 19, she tweeted: “Don’t believe this OMG!!! Am going back to that Hollywood house, to spend the whole weekend this time! #Zuma’s home @Nkandla. Whop [sic]. Can’t Wait.”
Her varsity friends have told the media that this was about the time she started living it up.
The possibility of the Matatiele-bornfree having a ‘blesser’ was a slap in the face for her former employers.
“Blessers” are wealthy, older men who use their financial power to woo young women with cars, residences and money in exchange for sex.
Conco was the national treasurer and communications officer of She Conquers, a government-initiated campaign aimed at addressing the high rate of HIV among young women by addressing gender-based violence, the high rates of teen pregnancy and specifically the ‘blesser culture’.
Pressure from the board reportedly resulted in her resigning on Monday.
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A young minister sitting down to dinner was about to say grace when he opened the casserole dish that his thrifty new bride had prepared from all of the refrigerator leftovers.
“I don’t know,” he said dubiously, “but it seems to me that I’ve blessed all this stuff before.”
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