{"id":22412,"date":"2013-09-04T20:05:43","date_gmt":"2013-09-04T18:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/the-brigadier-and-the-foot-soldiers\/"},"modified":"2013-09-04T20:05:43","modified_gmt":"2013-09-04T18:05:43","slug":"the-brigadier-and-the-foot-soldiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/the-brigadier-and-the-foot-soldiers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Brigadier and the Foot Soldiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/p>\n

I have lived in Ward 1 \u2013 Summerstrand for 35 years. Naturally, during this period I have seen many changes in how the suburb has been treated and governed by the local government. In the old days, when it was \u201cWhites Only\u201d, we had voluntary City Councillors (with no pay) serving us. But post 1994, things changed for the better and the demands on councillors became much more onerous.<\/p>\n

As a consequence, the City Council became politicised and Summerstrand has experienced both ANC and DA representation during the past two decades.\u00a0 The result, of course, has been that \u2013 in the DA at any rate \u2013 there has been an aggressive strategy involving many foot soldiers (councillors) and a group of commissioned officers. Some of the latter group were Majors, who in the correct tradition, functioned alongside the foot soldiers in the field. I am not sure whether Athol Trollip actually did perform this role as a field officer (perhaps the Herald<\/a>, that has been so vocal lately, can provide us with Trollips\u2019 CV in this regard). However, he was promoted, for whatever reasons, to the rank of Brigadier, to be based in Bisho. Now, as you know, brigadiers are not normally field officers. They tend to sit in the Officers\u2019 Mess most of the time and occasionally pop into the ops-room to see how the boys at the coal front \u2013 the councillors \u2013 are doing. As I mentioned, I have been in Summerstrand for 35 years and have yet to know that Brig. Trollip was to visit our local foot soldier (Slabbert), let alone us poor peasants who actually were providing him \u2013 the Brig. \u2013 with something to fight for, and more importantly, the wherewithal to do so.<\/p>\n

But like in all wars, it is the guys out front \u2013 foot soldiers \u2013 councillors \u2013 who have to face the brunt and take the battle forward. It is they who have to daily, no, hourly, deal with the demands of the peasant ratepayers and the political \u201cenemy\u201d.<\/p>\n

While they are busy doing that though, the Brigadier is planning a new move. Having failed to attain promotion to General \u2013 in order to muster the troops in Parliament (he lost out to a much more competent lady) \u2013 he used another tactic. He decided to go royal. Just as in centuries ago, officers went to see the King (or Queen) in their hour of need, so Brig. Trollip went, cap and batton in one hand (as befits a man of his rank) and a conscription form in the other \u2013 to the befuddled King. What a triumph.<\/p>\n

But every triumph is balanced by a tragedy. In this case the tragedy was that one of the foot soldiers stepped on a land mine. The explosion did not kill anyone else, but seriously dented the already tarnished image of the Brigadier. His colleagues in the Officers\u2019 Mess in Bisho were not impressed with his organisational and professional skills.<\/p>\n

Of course the Brig. had no choice but to leap into action and flay the already exploded foot soldier. What a brave officer he is \u2013 ready to take the flack and to shoulder the responsibility of his actions. Hence, when he announced the initial suspension of soldier Slabbert, he stated \u2013 according to the Herald<\/a> \u2013 that he, the Brig. himself would deal with any problems the rate-paying peasants of Summerstrand might have.<\/p>\n

Upon this invitation, I called Trollip regarding some issues concerning a fire hazard in our suburb. He informed me that, notwithstanding the DA\u2019s suspension of Slabbert, the latter was not suspended as a Councillor and that I should in fact, direct any queries directly to him. Trollip mentioned in passing though, that he, the Brig. did not want this fact i.e. that Slabbert was not suspended as a councillor, to be made public because it would not be politically good for the DA. I was amazed at this hidden agenda \u2013 hidden by both the DA leadership and the media i.e. the Herald. There is no doubt in my mind that the Herald was aware of this situation but chose to hide it in its subsequent bid to flay Slabbert still further. The lack of integrity by both Trollip and the Herald are shocking.<\/p>\n

Councillor Slabbert has been far-and-away the best City Council representative I have had the pleasure of dealing with in the past 35 years. He has always taken calls, responded immediately and produced positive results. As a ratepayer, I actually do not care which party my local representative belongs to, as long as he\/she produces the goods. Slabbert has done that impeccably and hence, should he choose to contest the up-coming by-election as an independent, I will support him.<\/p>\n

Regards<\/p>\n

Bruce Robertson<\/strong>
\nSummerstrand Resident<\/p>\n

\nThese businesses support MyPE<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

MyPE<\/a> supports PE business:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have lived in Ward 1 \u2013 Summerstrand for 35 years. Naturally, during this period I have seen many changes in how the suburb has been treated and governed by the local government. In the old days, when it was \u201cWhites Only\u201d, we had voluntary City Councillors (with no pay) serving us. But post 1994, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1289,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-22412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mype","8":"tag-port-elizabeth-2","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}