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Unmasking the COVID lie

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We all want to do our part to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Well,  maybe I should say my family and I do. After all, some people in Africa south of the Sahara have diligently demonstrated that they believe they are immune from infection. They defy all instructions and advice about social distancing and improved hygiene habits. These are neighbours, community members and total strangers who seemingly get a kick out of duping the authorities who advise against certain behaviour. However, without wasting much of your precious time (you might be anxious to watch reruns of your favourite soapie or hit thé streets once again, to wrestle with security forces who want you to die of old age and not be killed by COVID-19), let me get to the point. It's high time, you say?  I totally agree. My main concern is the now fashionable use of masks, supposedly to prevent the spread of the virus. This is the latest advice to come from those who have been telling us to wash our hands ...
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Donated food will kill us all

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A hungry man is an angry man. I may still be in the Workers' Day mood but this is not me chanting some EFF or SMAWU slogan. This is me observing how the COVID-19 nightmare has made angry people out of many emaSwati (I wonder what is wrong with saying Swatis. After all,  we were simply Swazis not too long ago and nobody complained). Anyway, let me conform, lest I be labelled Mr-know-it-all once again. Yes,  it has happened before. I am actually getting used to it. In fact, it is what keeps me going. A hungry man is an angry man but apparently, a hungry woman is angrier.  She will shout at government officials, NGO workers,  journalists and even curious passers-by. I have seen women in places like the slummy Alexiandra, near Johannesburg in South Africa shouting and demanding food from private donors or government workers sent to help mitigate hunger pangs brought about by effects of the coronavirus lockdowns. No, I was not in the republic. This is just one of the be...
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It's a full lockdown - that's the partial truth

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For all intents and purposes, our unlucky kingdom is now on full lockdown. Unlucky? You ask. Well,  if we had been lucky enough to have a caring, sensitive and proactive government, we would be on partial lockdown today because we would have started with the full curfew at the beginning of March. Let me explain. The Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini government is just too proud to admit that it has ordered a full lockdown. They just do not want to give us armchair critics our 15 minutes of fame, to gloat and say to them, "We told you so." Some of us have been warning that the situation would explode in thé faces of this lackadaisical government and nobody listened. They seemed not to worry much about prevention and appeared to think they would cross the COVID - 19 bridge when they came to it. Trouble is, we were all passengers in their reckless vehicle. They were carrying us to that bridge and today, we are all there. It is no longer funny now. Only now, has Lizzie Nkosi, the indiff...
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We miss you, Lady Howard

So, what do Donald J. Trump and Bheki Cele have in common? One is President of the United States of America and the other is Minister of Police in South Africa. What do they have in common? Height? Maybe. Skin colour? Definitely not. A sense of humour? Well, let me check. Shooting from the hip? Now we are getting there. What I have admired about these men is that, since the advent of the coronavirus, they have been there for the respective nations they serve. Of course, Trump has been widely blamed for having been too slow to take the threat of this virus seriously from the early stages - and he has in turn found scapegoats in China and the World Health Organisation  (WHO) - but he has since come to the party. He is visibly a worried man, a man faced with an enemy that will not tuck its tail in the hind legs and disappear just because Trump has publicly ridiculed it,  calling it all sorts of denigrating names. This is an enemy that strikes while the FBI and CIA are awake an...
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They said this was 20-plenty. Where are they ?

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They say God works in mysterious ways. It is a mystery how all our miracle-performing, bible -punching and charismatic pastors failed to prophesy or even predict that the year 2020 would be a year of such hardship, sorrow, uncertainty and grief. These self-appointed men of God have failed us all. Not only were they unable to see into the future and warn us about COVID-19 but they even lied, saying the fact that 2020 has two '20s' meant that it was a year of abundance. They made us believe that this was a year of plenty and even took a cue from well-known rappers like South Africa's rising star Duncan and said this year was 20-plenty. So,there you are.  2020 was 20-plenty. In quite a few churches in Eswatini and South Africa,  the crossover song was uncharacteristically one by a group not known for gospel. This was the song by some creative soul known as Master KG  (bite me if I am wrong. This is not exactly my forte). Of course, the song had Christian lyrics about J...
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Welcome to my world....again

Good day, good people. This is not one of those sites that will ridicule and denigrate innocent folk and make unfounded allegations about people who do not deserve flak. We will laugh, analyse, criticise, explore and market both ideas and items. We shall condone and condemn,  depending on the circumstances of each case. My name is Innocent Maphalala and I have been in the media industry for 26 years, without taking a break  (save to eat breakfast or lunch and sanitise my hands 😀). We will be posting articles here at least three times a week, every week for the next 14 years or so. Your comments are not only welcome but extremely important. We thrive on criticism - constructive or otherwise.
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