Not for the first time, I wish to take my hat off to social media platforms for the manner in which they have changed not only the speed of news dissemination, but the very essence of storytelling.
Movie makers, TV and newspaper journos, novelists and other traditional storytellers are in for the high jump.
How we consume news – fake or real — is increasingly being influenced by social media, whether we want to admit it or not. Take the story of the week, for example. No, not Covid billions being stolen. That’s old news. The other story.
You still don’t know which one? Hang in there… Early last week, a friend of mine, who is a spin doctor for top politicians and businessmen, posted an intriguing video on his Facebook page.
Peterson Siyaya works for NUM. A trade unionist who drives a R3m car? That’s a story for another day
It was a detailed study of an expensive car whose bodywork had been thoroughly scratched. It wasn’t just any car, but a Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG, generally known as a G-wagon. It retails at R3m. My friend asked visitors to his page to supply a caption for the image. Responses ranged from "who would do this?" to "hell hath no fury than a b... scorned". But the main question was: whose car is this? By the end of the day the image had been shared not only on Facebook, but on other platforms as well. With each share, there was a new speculation as to the identity of the owner.
By one account, the culprit was Noma Gigaba, the wife of a former finance minister. The car, the story went, belonged to her boyfriend. Angry at the cheating brat, she had turned it into a piece of art.
Then the Sunday papers came out. They confirmed the Gigabas were indeed central to the saga. But the papers explained that Noma Gigaba’s alleged trashing of the car, which belongs to Malusi Gigaba’s friend Peterson Siyaya, was done in a fit of rage against her adulterous hubby. She trashed the car because Siyaya was a "bad influence" on her husband. Siyaya works for the National Union of Mineworkers. A trade unionist who drives a R3m car? That’s a story for another day.
After she’d been arrested for this, it transpired that she was allegedly central to a plot to have her husband killed. But after her Monday appearance in court — flanked by her lawyers Dali Mpofu and Tembeka Ngcukaitobi — we might soon get to know the truth.
"Two advocates at a bail hearing should tell you the woman has deep pockets," my friend Simo said, as we were ushered to our seats at The Codfather, a classy seafood place inside the Sandton Skye hotel.
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You can order from an à la carte menu, tapas menu, sushi menu or visit the fish counter to choose what appeals to you. They’ll weigh it and prepare it for you as you watch. For starters, Simo had six wild oysters. I had bait.
Having been impressed with its cleanliness and appealing ambience when I visited The Codfather last year, I’d decided it was worth revisiting, if only to see what it was like under Covid-19 restrictions.
For the main course, I enjoyed a cornucopia of salmon, snapper and yellowtail with vegetables. Simo had tiger prawns, barracuda and yellowtail.
The food set us back R350 a head; there’ll be some extras here and there. Point is, Codfather is classy without damaging your wallet.
Once again, a great pity there was no wine to wash it all down, to help with the digestion.
The Codfather *****
3 Stan Road, Morningside, Sandton
Tel: 010-020-0286
Dendron Secondary School *****
Mariana Mazzucato ****
Noma Gigaba ***
Thandisizwe Diko **
Ace Magashule *
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