The West Rand Toastmasters Club had another successful online meeting recently with nine attendees and one new member joining the club.
The purpose of the meeting was to nominate and vote for candidates for the new Executive Committee (Exco), therefore it was decided to have only two speakers. Unfortunately, the second speaker did not join the meeting and Bonny Matlala, the Area S2 Director from Soweto Positive Speakers delivered a humorous prepared speech from the Advanced Communication Series – The Entertaining Speaker.
His speech was entitled Let sleeping dogs lie.Bonny spoke about his time growing up in Meadowlands and the township culture.
He remembered two people who were skilled liars, and another man named Bra Biza who was a drunkard. Bra Biza would spend his time at the tavern and on his way home he would sing very loudly to alert his poor wife that he was on his way home just in case she was having an affair due to his absence.
The valuable lesson that Bonny learnt from Bra Biza is that life is not perfect, and in order to avoid stress we must look at the bright side to be happy. When a couple is married they must learn to apologise for their mistakes.
One does not have to win every argument and all that one needs to do is to let sleeping dogs lie.
The voting commenced and the following members were elected for the new Exco:
- President: Thato Majelo
- Vice President Education: Tiffany Lee
- Vice President Membership: Glen Campbell
- Vice President Public Relations: Glen Campbell
- Secretary: Jeffrey Nkhwazi
- Treasurer: Lynnette Harris
- Sergeant at Arms: Alwyn van Wyngaarden
Their Immediate Past President is Lynnette Harris, who will assist the new President when required.
Max Kaan took on the role of Table Topics Master and requested several attendees to deliver impromptu speeches on an array of topics.
André Diedricks’ topic was a marriage guidance counsellor and he advised Bra Biza to just ignore the situation if he found his wife in bed with another woman, or get a gun!
Malcolm Harris suggested Bra Biz’s wife should be singing Days of our Lives, and Mampe Mosito understood the situation from Bra Biza’s wife’s point of view, and said, “She had married her first love and became very lonely and had an affair with her neighbour. When Bra Biza became aware he started to take responsibility.”
Thato spoke about his experience in Swaziland when he was in exile. He described how he made a friend who did not speak his language, and they used to sing to each other when it was dark and cold.
The next meeting will take place on 4 June when Bonny will induct the new Exco.
For more information about the West Rand Toastmasters Club contact Glen Campbell on 073 538 9560 or glencampbell@telkomsa.net.
