ABOUT three dozen full moons after the dawn of the millennium, when poetry was taught in schools with the intention being for learners to analyse and interpret the art form, I was in high school.
English was a third, if not second, language for most of us black people. But then there was another variation of English from those foreign poems. It was very strange. It felt like we were learning another language. If I had a choice, I would have learnt predominantly South African poetry. Not only is it contextual to my past and upbringing, it is also much easier to understand.
Today’s poem is a dialogue between Advocate Gerrie Nel and EFF CIC Julius Malema having a go at each other after AfriForum announced they would privately prosecute Malema for fraud and tender corruption.
If you shake a dirty dog, it’s not always dust that flies out of its fur.
Dust might be camouflaged as dust mites.
These mites springing from you now have lingered on your clothes long before they turned to red overalls.
They have lingered for a decade, from back when you were fighting ANC fights.
These mites are from about 15kg of your body fat ago.
Hold it right there, you bloody racist.
You are grasping at straws.
We have been here before.
To a black man, déjà vu isn’t when we are paid less than the whites for the same job.
That is slavery that went to private school.
Déjà vu is when the coloniser puts up a smokescreen to blind us from underlying flaws.
The flaws of their ascendants. Swindling our land and painting it white.
Land expropriation without compensation is your agitation.
We have not put you in townships to monitor your moves.
Further segregated you according to which province of the Netherlands you are from.
The Flevoland in Tshiawelo, the Friesland in Diepkloof and the Gelderland in Zola.
You may believe you are not. But you are the enemy.
The poor masses of our people will decide; no white man will decide my destiny.
Your destiny is living up to the illegally awarded R50million bid to On Point Engineering.
This was in 2009.
No slander.
You owned that company; Limpopo government had not followed proper processes in awarding the tender.
The courts will witness a bulldog kill the goose that laid the EFF egg.
Your case was never reinstated because one of your co-accused got sick?
Oscar Pistorius’ case carried on, and he has no legs.
Your family’s trust has a vested interest in On Point.
Appointed in 2009 to aid Limpopo Department of Roads and Transport with infrastructure development, maintenance and planning.
But it received bribes from successful tenderers. How treacherous a crime.
High confines of a prison wall will give you enough introspection time.
Did it only take a few days for you to realise that assassins’ bullets will not do?
Or are these fraud and corruption claims your way of putting more on my plate?
Is this a fat fetish thing? As I recall, you mentioned my weight.
You are obsessed with my looks.
A former wrestler who has read a few law books.
A few degrees south to the North Pole of retirement. Is this you attempting to go out with a bang?
Leave the threat of assassination to me. We are here for our forefathers’ land.
High confines of prison walls have never been a factor.
We have died many times attempting to get this land back.
@Rabbie_Wrote