A Boulevard of Broken Dreams

A Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Whenever you go upstairs to the business end of my house near to my family planning rooms (bed rooms).You will go past a painting on the left of the stairs……..What is difficult about this painting is that, one gets so overwhelmed by the sense of anticipation and danger as you approach the top of the wooden stairs that you miss the beauty of the painting. In fact, by the time you get to the top of the stairs, the painting is too close, a meter and a half close to you that you do not appreciate it at all.

In order to appreciate it, you have to move past it and find a park bench that is positioned strategically opposite to the painting on the far left of the top floor. This bench gives one a command post like felling, of the top floor. This is where you can sit to appreciate in a calm way the entire family planning unit with all it different corners and curves nooks and crannies. In other words the bath, dresser and private sections of the house. In fact one of the rooms is written ‘Private’.

NOW. From that advantage point of this park bench you will then see the true magic of this painting.

At first glance, it looks like a photograph then a painting then a photograph, and it is in this confusion that its true beauty emerges. Yes it depicts a period in the 50’s in New York, so that gives you a perspective of a time in history. Then you can clearly notice mist, and the figure of James Dean in there tells you that it was cold and either in the morning or evening. Helenwein the painter simply titled it ‘A Boulevard of broken Dreams’.

It is a beautiful picture or painting if you like. Depending on what you see.

Now you all know that James Dean was an actor, who never realised his true potential but reached iconic status in the league of Ernesto ‘CHE’ Guevara. A man who symbolised ‘Revolution’. Dean on the other hand symbolised ‘Free Spirit’. His death, while speeding in a car was a testimony to how he lived.

Anyway, the symbolism of this painting takes me back to 1994 .On the 27^th of April, voting Day. Vusi Zwane my number one accused ‘Close Friend’, and I are running around the township to check out how the voting in going. Remember we were also very excited with the anticipation to cast our first vote. So from the Mandela House in Vilakazi Street, we move up past Nambita to the back of the Maponya intersection. We then decide not to vote at the AME Church but at a school right behind it four streets away. At the school we are ashier in to vote by non- other than Lerato Mbele who now hosts Africa Business report on British Broadcasting Corporation. A young Volunteer then.

So after voting, we drive around the township as self-appointed monitors to check if everything is in order. We end up later in Yeoville to see blacks and whites voting for the first time together. My Bosch Brick Cell phone did not have a camera and I never thought in my wildest dreams that my phone will have a camera and I had left my camera at home. Darn, so I missed all those pretty pictured that would be going with this story and of course it was a memorable day.

The birth of the new South Africa. You all know about the classical dilemma of birth. Is it at inception or at the birth of the baby after nine months? Or somewhere in between?

Well, in our case, we did not have to wait that long .The counting moved smoothly and today we are the darling of the world when it comes to electoral conduct. By the time the inauguration of our beloved president Mandela came on the 10^th of May 1994. Everybody in the world was calling me and Vusi for the invitation to the Union Buildings. I had already committed myself to the Ugandan delegation and please do not ask me how. I also had to find their AIRLINE Parking at OR Tambo which I did successfully. Now I hate bureaucrats of most countries because they think that the Sun shines from the face of their Bosses Whoever they are. One of them put so much pressure on me to guarantee his President Front row in the Union Buildings amphitheatre………I got so fed up and said ‘lady, I can get you inn but I cannot guarantee you front row’. And all your security will have to leave their guns outside the red Zone. Imagine some security guard from Egypt with a fully loaded Gun next to Gadhafi and Yasser Arafat.

So Vusi left with the ‘Winnie’ Group and I was left playing host to un-appreciative Africans. I later began to understand that to some of them this was a once in a lifetime experience and I was going to see Mandela next week and next month at the Rugby World Cup. Or at the Mandela House in Soweto for tea from time to time. Even at Shell house most Mondays. So I understood later. And we South Africans take this for Granted.

Well, a new Nation was born that day, A BOULEVARD OF DREAMS was then open. I was so hopeful about South Africa and I felt on top of the world. The Reconstruction and Development Plan was the new Buzz word. Our constitution was being crafted to great expectation and by the time it landed. It did not disappoint. The whole world nodded hail South Africa, Hail Mandela. Remember we had a bloodless Revolution to be admired by all. The people of Northern Ireland, South America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East came to South Africa for answers. We were the new Hope of the WORLD. We were the stuff that Dreams are made off.

With four Nobel Prize winners in Mandela, Tutu, Luthuli and de Klerk we were It.

By the time the Rugby World cup hit Ellis Park, and ‘Bafana Bafana’ took the Africa Cup, South Africa was the darling of the world.

We were still innocent then and did not know Corruption.

Our dreams were everywhere and somehow we lived them. I could feel it anywhere in the world I went.

Now we have the National Development Plan which in my view is a nice document with no specifics. It is like a plan written on a piece of paper with a beginning and an end at the corner of the page with some crossing streets here and there and come bends and curves and nothing else but an arrow going somewhere

You can see that it is a map but does not show you were the treasure is.

It is at this point that you realise that in the last 21 years we were entering:

 A BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS!

BY

Mac Donald Temane

For

‘Dad These Children Cannot Prey’

1987-2015

1987-2015

The other day my one and only sends me a text to tell me that she had just discovered the MZANTSI YOUTH CHOIR. Now this is intriguing since in 1987, I would be the one who tells her about what was going on in South Africa Culturally politically and otherwise. Since I am the black partner in the relationship and could go to the darkest corners of Mzantsi. Now I think that I am the white one in conduct and lack of knowledge of what is going down in Mzantsi.

She now has to educate me in what the township has to offer. If truth be told I have spent too much time in the Suburbs’ have lost touch……….I have lost touch!

The other day I meet a young girl in Emdeni Soweto, Now, in my time Emdeni was the real Wild Wild West. The township did not come wilder than that…….So I see this young girl about 8 years and my assumption is that she is a poor black girl, victim of surroundings no exposure, probably struggling at school etc…..I am looking for an address to pay my respects at the home of an old Diseased friend of mine…..I start by greeting her and calling her closer. She obliges and I start by asking her as to where I can find a certain number?

She then comes front up with so much confidence and asked if my car lacks a GPS in perfect English. Now, one I did not expect this, two I am shocked, three she takes over the conversation. She then says what the number was again. I repeat the number. She then goes on to explain how those who numbered this section of the township did not understand the importance of chronological order. But in any event she then explains the mis- sequence (her words) and how I should navigate going forward and tell me where this number will probably be!

I thank her, just before she gives me her cell number to call her in case the fool that I am gets lost.

I proceed in a shocked state to where I was going an indeed find the house.

After I paid my respects I find my way out of Emdeni and then begin to reflect at how out of touch with my people I have become. The 19 years of suburbia have really messed me up. I no longer belong in the ‘Hood’ nor do I belong in the ‘Suburbs’. It was at this point that I remembered that I come from this place whose pulse I no longer recognise. I think it was Nat Nakasa who wrote ‘A Native From Nowhere’. I could relate to him at this point.

So, in any event I listen to the Mzantsi Youth Choir cd and find a track called ‘Take Me Home’ which was very southing and relevant since Soweto is my home. I was quite surprised to see the CD sleeve cover taken from the Walls my old happy hunting ground ‘Eyethu Cinema. With the words ‘I love Soweto’ well pronounced.Cene van der Merwe who did the design cover probably had no idea that I used to que on that wall for my Saturday fix of a movie at The Eyethu Kiddies Club.

‘Homeless’ is classic and performed in their own unique style. It is based on that great Paul Simon, Joseph Shabalala & Ladysmith Black Mambazo original. This song never fair to send me back to 1987. I had not seen Nelson Mandela in person since I was born only when he was already in jail and all pictures of him banned. The very thought of missing someone who has been jailed for so long  and the effect of arrest and repression brought some disposition and deprivation firm and squire against you heart and you really felt Homeless in deed. Well I felt it deep in my soul.

The concert in the park in London had been staged in 86’ so all you heard anywhere in the world was the word ‘Release’ and you guessed it…..Mandela. In fact some kids in America thought his name was Release.

Anyway ,the track ‘WEEPING’ is also included in this CD.This is as South African as only the people in Mzantsi can make it.The Soweto String Quoted has a rendition of this and it is difficult to choose which one is the best. Mark my words not better but best, they are all good.

Then there is an inclusion of the ‘African Dream’ by Vicky Simpson. World famous great song.

Hallelujah written by Canadian Leonard Cohen is as South African as they come. One really then notices that South African songs are steeped in spirituality. This is why they resonate with everyone around the World.

Indodana is pure a’Capella piece about the Crucifixion of Christ in a manner that turns it into a southing feather lala-bye that encourages the end of suffering. Indodana is apt

Anyway as I come to the end of this CD, I realise that I was taken into a nostalgic journey of Mzantsi my Home.

Including all the GOOD, the BAD & the INDIFFERENT.

Ya ne’!

Heritage Reclamation

           

Heritage Reclamation

The year was 1983 or 84 I just cannot be sure but it really does not matter since I wise man once told me that, one should not allow exact times and year to ever get in the way of a good story. By the way this is my life story and all that is said on this book comes from true incidents or events. And the people are real, people who I met through this journey of life.

So, my mother asked me to go to Swaziland to fetch the title deeds of a property that my father had bought in 1966/7 from an attorney in Manzine.i still remember that this property was in Fairview Township. The next task was to go to Lesotho to do the same since the old man had bought more property there too.

It is at this point that I wish to tell all Africans who have a claim on a piece of land and cattle anywhere, even within a remote area. Go and Claim it. It is at the centre of all wealth creation process. It will give you the security you need to move out of poverty for your generation and build a better economic platform for the next. Believe me, now I know better. Had I known this then, Donald Trump would have nothing on me.

Before I left I had consulted with Matilda Moloi my old late high school  Girlfriend whose family lived and had business in Manzini.In fact we went to a Matric Dance together and won the best dressed couple prise. Her brothers Derrick and Charlie were great fun, Derrick the intellectual and Charlie the smart jokester. I even fantasised of Mrs. Moloi as a future mother in-law. She was very Good to me.

So, Matilda, gave me the lay of the land and off I went to Swaziland. I went passed Witbank and decided to go via Carolina route.

Now, you all know that Black Prisoners were sold to white farmers as cheap labour particular in the potato districts. What is funny is that one of my white Class mates in high school came from the same area and he told me that the workers called him ‘Mazambane’ meaning Potatoes.

I had read the exploits of the late Henry Nxumalo on Drum magazine a few years earlier and I was keen to see the equivalent of the American Chain Gang of prisoners in my country. Well, I did not have to wait that long.I came past this farm and found Prisoners working in a raw just as I had imagined it.

I parked my car and got out in the opposite direction to where I was going. For a few minutes I stood there to my and their amazement. A few feet away on a tractor stood a white man in a Khaki Shirt with blue patches on the chest .We looked at each other for a while with no one saying a word.

The prisoners were as baffled as the farmer  to my presence………..I stood there in my white button down shirt with a tie which was my signature dress then. Everyone wondered as to what my next move was going to be. One by one all the prisoners stopped working and looked at me.Something in me said to me ‘Son Give Them Courage’. I then moved to the window of the car and pressed the hooter and raised my fist in the Jessy Owen Pose and shouted: ‘Amandla’.

The prisoners responded as if in a practised unison: ‘Awetho’.

It then dawned on me that the farmer could actually just shoot me since I was trespassing and also inciting a riot. I jumped into the car a turned around and headed for the Swazi border at great speed. I was now on an adrenalin rush………………looking back to see who is following. Just before I got to the border near Hendriena I started reflecting as to what I just did back there. What was that all about?

I then parked my car in one of the bays at the border gate so as to mingle with other cars. I went in to fill a form and then handed my passport, all tensed up. My passport was handed to me without any hassles and I crossed into Swaziland without incident. As I drove into Mbabane a great sense of relief overcame me and somehow I felt secure and proud of what I did to the prisoners, even if it was just for  one minute and against one farmer. I was proud of this spontaneous action on my part, I could not have planned it better.

Little did I know that within Ten Years, South Africa would be a Free Country. So Strong was the White Minority Grip on the country that even as a betting man, if you asked me how long it would take before the birth of the new South Africa .I would say 30 years or in the year 2000,which we though was very far,and we would only live  it in space ships.

I went to the Hotel where Matilda had advised me to stay and checked in.I then went to the attorney’s office to do my business. I checked the rates that were due and I was advised that I should go to see the site. I arrived there to find a family living in the yard is a shack and they told me that they were paying rent to some old man whose surname kept coming up since the attorney’s office. I was there to reclaim what was then to be my heritage .I was getting the feeling that this old man was a crook and that if I met with him. I may end up in a Swazi Jail. Remember at that age I solved most problems with violence. I ran 12 km at an average of 3:50 min/km  flat and packed a mean left hook and a devastating right cross. I was not to mess with .I had 4 official gym fights with 12 KO’s and the difference in the streets of Soweto. If I hit you, you fell-Period.

So it was advisable that I not meet this old man at all. I then stated writing my report to my mother about the state of affairs in Swaziland. This I had to do for our attorney in South Africa and also as a recordial for our family.

I then drove down to the Moloi’ s residents in Manzini to pay my respects and also to check out the town for some business opportunities.In general I found the city dead and I was not experienced enough to do this task even though I was cocky enough to think that I know it all.

Night fall came and I took off to where I was to sleep for the night and I felt NOSTALGICK that my father who had died some seven years earlier was not there to see me as a young man.The last time I was in Swaziland I was with him, my mother and brother,Peter.I was six years old then.

Night time was sweet and a little hallow at the same time. I took in all the smells of lavender that only Swaziland can bring and from my open window I could see Mbabane at a distance and I got that feeling that you only feel on your first night in a foreign place, the sounds, the architechture,the foreignness .

The next morning I left the place where I was staying and went into Mbabane on my way out. I spend time in the market place which was just full of hawkers selling the same things. The was nothing special or different from them all. I went into some offices full of civil servants who always want to feel more important than the public they are supposed to serve.

I left Swaziland disillusioned and headed for the border. Did the rituals and crossed without fanfare into South Africa.

I then headed to the farm where I caused mischief the previous day. This time I did not stop but started hooting from a distance with my hand raised in a ‘Power’ salute. I could see the prisoners responding in the distance. I know they knew who I was and I gave them I little lift once again.

In my mind, I think that I did help at least one of them out of dispear.I felt like a small stone being thrown into a dam. The ripples of that one stone can be 20 or 50 .But whatever happens the dam has been disturbed at least for a while but sometimes these ripples last forever and never stop.

And as I hit Joburg I felt I did good and that the energy I left with the prisoners will somehow help us reclaim our country.

Again!

The Two Falcons in My Garden

The Two Falcons in my Garden

Whenever I walk or leave my house via the garden route, I come across this pair of Falcons. It is very clear that they are husband and wife due to their posture at all times. The lady seems to be bent and gathering while the gentleman is always upright and playing guard.

The male falcon who I will call ‘Godzilla ‘is a no nonsense guy, who understand and executes his role perfectly and with distinction. The female is very content that the male will deal with you accordingly and the male lets you know what the rules are without talking to you. The non-verbal conversation goes something like this.: ‘Chief, this may be your house , yard and all but this is my wife and do not come any closer and do not fuck with her.’ What is very clear, is that you get the massage clear, that messing with her is messing with us.

Now, bear in mind that I am a big guy, some people call me ‘Big Mac ‘who in their world I should be a giant. But No, no, he does not care, he has set these roles and I better abide by them.

The one thing that you get to understand in this whole communication and display is that. We are one and we live for each other. My wife is for me and I am for her. For the past seventeen years this has been the case for these two.

I have often wondered why is it, that we as human beings cannot emulate these Falcons. Why do we complicate our lives so much? There is no beauty for me better than the experience of love so deep. Love for each other.

Look, I do not know what else happens in the bird world at night, but what I can tell you is that, whatever it is that can strengthen love so deep: I want it.

I would often sit with Balekane in the garden and say look my dear, look at how he is protecting her. Look at how they relate with each other. Look at how they effortlessly kiss and hug as if on tune. Look at how they move around. All their action is designed to keep them together. I wonder how they sleep at night but I can imagine that even at knight the Falcon or Godzilla if you like, sleeps on guard am sure that he does get romantic and pay attention to his bride and let her know that he lives for her. The loving must be so deep that the lady can feel that I am loved. I am sure that she reciprocates in kind to say: Here you go my King let me give you the best of me.Balekane and I often joke that they give each other like we do. All of it!

It is at these times that I often think of Romeo and Juliet or Samson and Delilah. Where all that is around you does not matter. What matters is just the two of you.

I know that as couples grow, a child appears and you both change and give some of the love to the offspring but I think that in the long run the offspring leaves the nest and gets on with its life. And all that is left is you two. When all is said and done only you two matter or should matter. There may be a small sense of selfishness in my tone that the bond of the loving team is sac recent .I often admire a partner who follows the other in death soon after the other has gone. Just to say to the world: We Belong Together. Some of you may say but death is horrible how can you say that .But what I know is that Love Conquers all!

So whenever I see the Godzilla and his wife on my garden. I often thank God for giving me such a simple lesson from two un- assuming birds.

I often wonder if mankind can take these lessons to heart.

How Beautiful and Fulfilling Life can Be!

(From Tear Drop)

       By

Mac Donald Temane

Why The Poor Are Getting F*CKED

         Why the Poor are Getting Fucked

The main reason that the poor will get poorer and the rich richer is simple.

The poor through the ages have been sold a dud and they bought it. Allow us politicians to look after your interest. Let us go way back to the era of serfdom. This was an era where you had the monarchy and those who owned land or rather allocated land by the Monarchy in Europe. Those who owned land colluded with the monarchy to monopolise wealth and taxed the poor hence Communism. Today the politicians collude with those who have capital to ride on the backs of the Poor.

NOW, poverty of the mind is the worst form and it is perpetuated structurally.

In Africa, Jomo Kenyatta put it bluntly that when the Missionaries came to Africa, they had the bible and the Africans the land. They then proposed that we all close our eyes and Pray. When we all said ‘AMEN’. The Missionaries and the colonialists had the land and the Africans the bible.

For the next four centuries the African had to play ‘Catch Up’. As soon as he/she catches up. The rules of the game are changed. Sometimes not by force by or the naturel order of change. Dispossessed in the Agrarian age the African and all the Colonised had their energy sapped to retain the land. Before they even won that war, the industrial age was upon them and their focus was divided and they did not know what hit them. With monetisation and Stock markets allowing for new forms of money. The African had to dig deep, the wars of attrition and the world wars involved Africans in a mess not of their making but paid for it anyway.

By 1896 the war between Church and State that the Europeans had fought 10 centuries earlier was now being played on the African Continent with disposition and Urbanisation thrown into the mix.

The advent of the African Episcopal Missions led by Reverend Dwane of the Ethiopian order within the Anglican Church further divided the African mases with issues of polygamy practise not settled until today.

By the time the computer age came, the African was still spinning without direction and no Statehood with a few countries experimenting with Independence in a system of the Cold War witch was not of their making

This was not what pulverised the poor but what was to follow.

The birth of Career Politicians.

By 1994 most Black Business persons had more money than any returning and existing politician. By 2014 those with political connections were now Millionaires and Billionaires.

 Why?

Well, you see what politicians proposed to Africans was that. Look, let us get rid of the Monarchy by allocating a budget for the Monarchy and the Chiefs so that they do not interfere with the looting .Then let us create a parliament where we will first look after ourselves the judiciary and all organs of state where we will deploy and employ our friends and cronies. This we are doing in the name of you the Poor who we will always refer to as ‘the People’.

We will allocate R3.5bn to the Small Business Ministry where almost R1bn will go to our cronies in administration. Now please tell me that the heads of that ministry have ever run a ‘Spaza Shop’. Now if you have ever run a small business at all .You will know that the responsibility to pay workers at the end of the month is enormous. Anybody who has ever run a small business which is the real job provider can attest to the difficulty of running a business.

Productivity which should be at the heart of any wealth creation process is compromised or even destroyed.

Please tell me that all our parliamentarians are the most productive people in South Africa. And that any of them can walk into any private company and do well?

 My view is that we have a bloated national provincial and inefficient local government-Period!

‘Politicians and Diapers must be Changed Often, and for the same Reason.’-----Mark Twain.

Trickle-down economics has never worked anywhere in the world and in South Africa we are at a disadvantage. A lack of coordination between Institutions of higher learning and the private sector is almost non- existent .In other words the universities are not producing what industry needs but what the government thinks industry needs, no communication.

Now, going forward and to eradicate unemployment to under 5% will not happen under these conditions.

A small glimmer of hope does exist in the exponential nature of technology and if used wisely we may catch up. Put what is also true is that those who are ahead of us are growing exponentially too.

Now South Africa does not have a monopoly of bad governance, it is just that we all expected better and had high hopes for a Democratic State. If the current state of affairs is what they went to jail for all those years, then I have problems with their silence. Or maybe they were just bought off by being made parliamentarians then retired with living support? I am not questioning their sacrifice but their silence. Mondli Gungubele the mayor of Ekurhuleni put it to me and said ‘Mac, Democracy is not a perfect system, but the alternative is too ghastly to contemplate’. While I agreed with him on the sentiment, I still believe that we can do better. And reverse most of what I talked about on this section.

The poor on the other hand will remain helpless and poorer in this decade .I hope that the regular public protests will turn the hearing aid of those in power.

But …I am not holding my breath!

My 325 IS E-SERIES 1989

My 325 IS E-series 1989

My car was nearly stolen today 12 August 2015 at the Crowthorn Shopping Centre in Midrand.

For the past 27 years my car has survived all the thuggery that the South African thugs can master.

So for as long as Nelson Mandela was in jail my car was safe until, Now 2015.I had always vowed that if anybody stole my IS I wold find it the same day. This car has always been in demand for almost three decades and survived, Until now.

I just realised that I am not a thug that I used to be, I am now a respectable member of society who wears a tie and dresses in a suit and a white shirt. Simply put I am now a Punk, a Mogoe, a Kalajane, a Mampara.Someone whose candy can be taken from him .A Moemish!..........I HATE GETTING OLD .I hate being a target. For all my life even as a six year old, you could not take anything of mine by force or tricks anybody who tried nearly landed up in the local cemetery. I am mad, not that my car nearly left me unceremoniously after so many years. I am mad because I felt helpless and that I now know nobody in the under-world. I am now a sitting Duck.

I now have no pulse of what is happening is South Africa. I do not know the head of the car squad nor the head lieutenant off the Police. I have lost my power and I feel helpless. I feel helpless in the New South Africa, Somehow I felt stronger under Apartheid .I was never a spy or a supporter of the system but I knew how to work the system.

Once I found myself at the house of the BADDEST COP at the Brixton Murder and robbery squad who lived in Rockville Soweto. This is a cop who could shoot a man dead in broad day light back in the day and not even have an inquest on that incident or just play it as a robbery gone badly.

In terms of underground criminals, Man I knew everybody who was anybody. From the bank robbers to the clothing ‘suppliers’. I knew everybody or at least I knew someone who knew someone who can get me what I wanted.

I hate being Corporate.

You see, ever since I made the decision to get all University Educated and go Corporate .I have been living on other peoples rules, The fUcken Banks, the Government and the Criminals. Let me be quite clear.

Put together, all of these people are legal Gangsters. Think about it, The banks and the Insurance companies Steal legally from the public .Monies that do not get claimed by people who have no next of kin,Taking money from one account that you have, to pay themselves on another. My money that was in the dollar account was taken with no court action and when you are weakened you cannot fight and you are a sitting dead meat .Repossessing peoples cars selling them to their friends and screwing you for the balance owing. If this is not criminal I do not know what is.

Government, and the Politicians the less said about them the better. In 1992 I knew that I was richer and had more ties that all the ANC politicians put together. I cannot say that Today. Many who could not rub two cents together then and getting R15million rand handshakes and do tender irregularities of major propotions.In one case I heard of a R700 million split between three guys.

It is now an open secret that most of those in parliament have defrauded the travel fund. They all got off because you cannot put law makers in jail and some of the pleaded ignorence.But this is bull shit.We are just run by thieves finish and klaar. But having said that the poor get the government they deserve so in my book the poor have been sold a dud by the politicians. No wonder the office of the Public Protector is so buzy.God help us when Thuli Madonsela goes. It is going to be open season on all of us by the Politicians.

THIS IS HOW IT WENT DOWN SINCE TIME EMEMORIAN BY THESE THUGS:

‘Now, Poor People, allow us to take power from the Monarchy. We will place them on a small payroll with ourselves where we will pay ourselves much more from your taxes. We will hobnob with business and get our children into private schools and private hospitals when we are sick. You can go to public schools and hospitals when you are sick where you might get some education and maybe come out of the hospitals alive. In the name of George Washington, Lenin or Tambo.’

The Poor are Suckers and now knowing all this I have become one!

I feel so helpless, Darn maybe I should become a War Lord like Charles Taylor. I have run more than 300 people before and I can do it again. No wonder Pablo Esca Bal and Noriega did it their way. Yes they all got imprisoned and maybe shot but hey I might as well die on the high. At least I die with call honour.

I am Mad, and I MUST change the formula.

If I do not, I will be eaten for toast by people who are less talented that me.

I first felt the IS power one evening on my way to Sharpeville with my friend Tom Molefe in 1987.We were driving in my 160i Honda Ballade on the highway past the Everton. The IS went past us so fast I swear you would think that we were looking for Parking…….I tried to follow and all I could see was its tail light disappearing into Vanderbijlpark.This car was moving and Tom and I looked at each other as if we had seen a ghost. I remember Tom saying ‘Morwa we have to get ourselves one of these.’ From that day I vowed that I will buy this car one day and two years later I bought one. I remember how the kids loved it and stopped it at the scholar patrol section in Kliptown just to give me a wave on their way to school. I too did the same when I first saw the late Mr.Msibi in his cabriolet in Mofolo-South as a 10 year-old. It was inspirational.

I must never lose my BMW 325 IS, some call is a Shadow-line, others call it ‘e Gusheshe’ others call it ‘Gush-La-Gesh’ and those who really know is say(E’ Themba La Magomosha){loosely translated as A Hope for the Independent in Though, the Brave, the ones who do their own thing} .

And if truth be told it was Thendae Sithole who once said that ‘Mac Donald you are e’Gomosha’.And he has not seen one better. I made sure not to let my possessions poses me.For this reason I have let many of possessions go.Buildings,land,cars,busineses.I must change this attitude and get mean again

I must stay true to this credo, If I do not, what good am I.

I NOW KNOW THAT THIS IS NOT A CAR FOR ME, BUT THE ESSENCE OF MY BEING!

(Dad These Children Cannot Prey)

Looking for Love

Looking for Love

In the last two weeks, I have been coming across women looking for Love.

For a moment I wondered why the last two weeks in particular. Or am I just become aware of it or am I just hanging out in all the wrong places?......No, I think it is a combination of all the above. Come to think of it.Women are looking for love all the time and men on the other hand just looking for Sex.But since my focus in this booklet is about women I will stick to my subject of women because you are more important species in general than the proverbial sperm doners.Make no mistake I am not putting down the men by any means since they are the hunted here if truth be told. I am simply paying extra attention to women. Young women in particular and older women too. I will address you both separately the two groups of women that is.

Young women go out all dressed up to parties sometimes too overdressed. Now, get this one straight the is nothing off putting to a man than an Overdressed heavily made up women. Too much make up make you look like a Circus Clown in high heels. Think about it, huge powder with red lips. Do not get me wrong, some eye make up to show off your beautiful eyes and light make up is ok.Please do not over do it.You do not want the guys to see a different woman the morning after because after he has bonded with you he wants to see who he really bonded with in the morning and if the gap is too big he gets second thought on the spot. Did you guys ever wonder why he does not call the following day? The poor guy woke up next to a different person than the one he went to bed with. So stop the heavy make-up.

I know that most of you will be so bust up when he does not call and you think it is because you gave him some on the first or second date. It has nothing to do with how many dates you go out on .It has everything to do with the fact that he now realises that you are not the same person he fell for. So be you, from the outset .Otherwise you will suffer the worst case of a hit and run than any taxi I know.

On the other hand, when I suggest that you should be you. I am not suggesting that all your bad manners should show on the first night. We all know that you can be a bitch but darm do not show it all on the first night. Remember a relationship is work in progress for many years. If you do not like his mustarch on day one do not start attacking the guy on day one. You are not perfect yourself, nobody is perfect. The will be enough time to have him shave it.

There is this Bull Shit attitude particularly put forward by African American women that I am me and not going to be pushed around by anyman.These women go home alone. No matter how pretty and successful they are. Men are really simple they are just small boys who keep looking for different and bigger toys. So understand that and keep varying the tows then you are ok.Some of them do not like too many toys and they will let you know as you take it a step at a time.

I meet far too many women who say that men are intimidated by their success. That cannot be further from the truth. Most men I know would like to bonk a self-assured well doing of financially well doing woman who does not ask you for anything. The problem arises when you forget to engage with your femininity as opposed to your qualification or purse.

I once dated a woman sexy as hell, who was just hung up on her degrees and her MBA.I just wanted to love and bonk her. I did not give a rat’s ass about her degrees. I liked her not her degrees. And every conversation had a timeline of pre or post MBA.Darm I grew tired of it.Then she stated criticizing my 25 year old 325 is/ then I knew that she just came out of a farm to a University and knows nothing else .She preferred the latest car I bought which had nothing on my Classic. I know that sometimes it is just preference and the is nothing wrong with that but do not dice my car. I may not like all the dresses you ware but I will not dice them. That you have a degree means nothing to a love life. It is how you carry yourself as a person and the personality you have developed. So ladies let us park the degrees please. Let me put it this way a degree is a bonus.

I am now reminded of a conversation with one lady who wanted me to give her a silver bullet on Men in one sentence and she was quite adamant about it.So when I said the is none but a combination of tricks she started arguing and pressed me for the Silver Bullet. I then realised that she does not listen and was just desperate for the Silver Bullet. Yes you there are some cardinal roles and I will give them to you Now:

                      1) Read ‘Stand by your Man’ in this booklet.

                      2) Keep improving your sex exercises plus physic even when you are a big girl.

                       3) Learn Romance and Nurturing.

                       4) Cook, you do not want a dude to show you flames in the Kitchen.

                       5) Respect not Docility

                       6) Laugh and have fun

                       7) Smile (this is the best gift to yourself)

I am not placing these as rules, but guide lines to the happiness window.

One of the biggest mistakes that young sisters make is to pretend to be Pre-Madonna’s as if they have 100 men who wish to love and care for them. They simply do not get it and do not know how to differentiate lust from love……One of their worsed behaviours is to go out to a party to meet people not necessarily Mr.Right,people.Then they spend time on their Phones texting friends. If you wish to be with those friends, why don’t you go spend the night at their house?

First you introduce yourself to all at the party genuinely so.Then case out the joint for the one you wish to catch. Work out what needs to be done, help out at the kitchen move around learn the lay of the land. Do not just sit on your phone. I know most of you have not learned to deal with ‘Mr Lastag’ and you do not want to open yourself to him. You have to learn how to deal with this type of person and in fact you this may be your entry to get the guy you fancy help you with ‘Mr.Lastag’, If you do not open yourself or rather. If you do not open your hands to receive how you do catch anything?

You see, when you go fishing with a net, you bring in the Fish, Crabs and Frogs. But it is only when you have them that you choose which one to throw away. Being at one place and pretending to be at another is so immature. I know the are times when you are as horny as hell and that is not a very good time to be looking

Looking for love on the net is popular these days but it has its pros and cons.There is no question that the net is effective and will continue to be a powerful instrument. But I am still old school and believe in what I see. Conferences, Libraries, Theatres, Soccer matches are all arenas where people congregate.

My final parting short for older women. You guys have had affairs marriage etc. and have seen it all .Do not despair you  are as old as how well you eat and how hard you train so that  join a gym, running club and stay in shape. You will meet active people that you desire. If you are not prepared to put in the work then do not complain if nothing comes your way!

Extract

from

‘Tear Drop’

By Mac Donald Temane