Joy and Despair
Notes From Johannesburg
Jamin Ohwovoriole
The main news here this week is an admixture of the dingy, the near supernatural and the hilarious. The biggest: scion of the iron lady, Margaret Thatcher arrested; 23 year old Christine McKenzie lives to tell her story after 11 000-foot plunge from the sky; Clyde Rathbone's mother visited with the wrath of men of the underworld days after the former Springbok's player lambasted South Africa, claiming that the country's frightening crime rate made him to defect and embrace Australia.
The arrest of Sir Mark Thatcher created a stir. The frenzy that greeted the occasion is the type experienced on the Nigerian streets when an egungun - better still, an oro - chooses to emerge from the secret places of the gods in broad daylight. However, this pandemonium is destined to freeze the moment a woman decided to confront the abami eda in an attempt to unmask it. The truth is that this Thatcher is not as tough as his mother, but he is a bedmate of controversy in a wry way that could be described as sly. Consequently, the Scorpions had investigated him previously for shady deals, but failed to sting him until now.
Mark Thatcher made this country his home eight years ago, and he lives in an exclusive Cape Town suburb in the company of other wealthy British homeowners. One of his neighbours is Earl Charles Spencer, the brother of the late mother of Prince William. He is a friend with men of timber and calibre, including alleged mercenary kingpin, Simon Mann. And, he is married to the daughter of a Texan multi-millionaire. A casual perusal of his profile gives one the impression that Thatcher is a shrewd businessman, who is not intimidated by blood: this guy sells arms! You may label him a Shylock, if you will. For this reason, he was investigated in 1998 by the law because it appeared majority of those who populated the hallway leading to the seat of power crawled to the one also known as "Scratcher" for loans. If you asked, it seemed the government was not comfortable with the way he controlled the denizens' allegiance since he had their balls in his hands. Above all, the site of oil makes him genuflect hysterically in a calm way.
This thirst for the black gold is the reason why it is believed that he may have invested in the alleged putsch that was foiled. Despite this, the 51 year old has announced his innocence. Also, Nick du Toit, the leader of the mercenaries standing trial in Malabo, has declared that he had discussions with Thatcher. However, their meetings, he says, never dwelt on how to topple the government in Equitorial Guinea: according to him, Margaret's son wanted to buy helicopters for a mining venture in Sudan and he had helicopters to sell. While du Toit's words appear to exonerate the Briton, the contents of Mann's letter, which was smuggled out of his Harare prison have some implicative undertones, except Thatcher is able to explain away, and convincingly too, why the prisoner on trial in Zimbabwe is demanding $200, 000 from him for an "unspecified project." The drama ahead may be torturous for Thatcher, who has been accused of planning to evade the law by relocating to the United States. According to the Scorpions, the gentleman has sold four of his luxury vehicles, put his house on the market for some N4 billion and has already purchased flights tickets for his family en route God's Own Country.
Before Thatcher, there was McKenzie and the story of the member of the Johannesburg Skydiving Club bothered on the miraculous. A skydiver of note, she was face to face with death when she found herself in a freefall after jumping out of a plane at 11 000 feet above sea level. Nope, she was not trying to commit suicide nor was her plane about to crash. It just happened that the two parachutes strapped to her back for her extra-curricular activity refused to deploy as envisaged. Although she cheated death, she went home with a fractured pelvic bone. As she tumbled from the sky, the wind must have definitely whispered Jimmy Cliff's "Ooh the harder they come the harder they'll fall..." to her soul but that was not exactly what concerned her much. While narrating her story to global media community attracted by the thud, she recalled what ran through her mind during that disturbing moment: "I thought: I am getting married in three months' time, and what about my family?" Thinking that the angels were simply waiting in the wings to ferry her to the bosom of her creator, she revealed a soul wrenching judgement on self: "I was really cross with myself."
Now that she is alive, the first thing she did was to call her fianc� and tell him to "cancel their planned adventure honeymoon of skydiving and cage-diving with great white sharks." Sure, no one tries to wrestle death consciously. And just like her father said, "God doesn't give chances like these very often."
Every living being should be familiar with the common dictum, "... the sins of the fathers shall be visited on the sons." This wise ancestral saying has been made to stand on its head here when criminals made to vent their anger on the mother of a loud mouth who rubbished the image of this country on international TV.
Just last week, Clyde Rathbone poured slim on the country of his birth because he was miffed with the state of the country vis-�-vis the lousy security machinery, which he claimed is in place here. He went ballistic on a Fox TV talk show and ended up washing South Africa's dirty linen before the American. Clyde Rathbone was South African, who is now an Australian. He once captained this country's Under-21 rugby team, but when he fled his motherland in 2002, he warmly embraced his new country and, also, pitched his tent with the Wallabies. Of course, the Blacks are perceived here as one of the enemies of the Springboks, which is South Africa's national rugby team.
While jiving before the Americans in a programme that was later aired here on Supersports' Wrap from Down Under, he said emphatically that he has not regretted "for one day" making the move to Australia. His greatest worry is the safety of his mother, who still lives here. And, then, she came to town to play the Boks wearing proudly the colours of the Aussies. His new team lost the match.
Just days after, some angry young men took his words to heart and what they considered unpatriotic, decided to invaded the garden that has rooted in its ground the tree, nay the apple of his eyes. In blind fury, they hurled his mother off the balcony. She was lucky death wasn't lurking around her building in Durban in spite of the fact that she bagged five fractured ribs, bruises and injuries to a hand and a foot. Devastated, she said of her mid-air flight: "I landed in an awkward way, I could have broken my neck." The stress of living with crime and violence in this land of gold may perhaps send Mother Rathbone and the rest of her family emigrating to Australia. It is just a thought. _ [email protected]
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