Usually African news is deeply depressing but I read a few things over the past week that really made me laugh.
Firstly, our mayor's house got burgled, but that's not the funny part, what's funny is that when he went to the police station to report it, he had to wait an hour and a half before he was seen to. He hadn't declared that he was the mayor (but shouldn't the police know who their mayor is anyway???) and I respect him for not wanting special treatment, but in true African style, no-one could be bothered to help him. Eventually he could take it no more, so he told them who was and he was seen to immediately. We're always complaining about how pathetic our police service is but at least now we know they treat everyone equally badly.
The next thing I found amusing was a report on an abandoned house somewhere in Nelspruit. The residents were complaining that it was attracting criminal elements etc. and wanted the municipality to do something about it (which they rightfully should but most probably won't). One resident in particular was complaining that the house still had running water so homeless people were coming there to cook and even bathe! (those damn dirty homeless people taking baths!)
But the most hilarious news by far is that the Zimbabwean reserve bank has now issued a $100 billion note! Ohmigosh, I can't breathe! ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS! Can you imagine having a one hundred billion dollar note? Manohman, I have got to get my hands on one of those! And I think $100 billion (Zim) is equal to about R5. How can mad Bob seriously still say there's no crisis in Zim when their reserve bank has got to issue $100 billion notes because of their ridiculously high inflation rate?
