About Bayanda Mzoneli
Bayanda Mzoneli is a public servant. He writes in his personal capacity.
Today is the last day of December 2008. I’m writing here to keep my promise of blogging at least once a month. Hence there is not much I have planned to write.
I’ve been meaning to write a whole lot of things recently, especially on the political front. Due to my busy work schedule issues tend to happen faster than I have time to write about them. Alternatively, I would have written text that is shallow and the millions of readers who visit this blog every month would have been disappointed at me.
I’m told that Ndumiso’s book [see links on Blogroll] will be out soon. I’m also told that it is titled “Is it because I’m black”. I wonder what funny philosophies is he going to come up with this time.
This festive season I managed to spend time with my 19 month-old daughter. It was nice to prepare food for her, change her napkin [now called dapper], bath her, put her to sleep, play with her and have a conversation with her. We have had very many conversations. Most of our conversations consists in her trying to repeat every word I say. I could not ask for a better Christmas.
I also had the opportunity to meet my maternal grandmother at Mtubatuba. She turned 80 on the 21st December 2008. I told her she is still young because I know of someone who is a president of a political party who also turned 80 this year. That person continues to be the president and appears less likely to retire any time soon. In that context my grandmother is still young.
My young sister turned 21 on the 9th December 2008. I had the intentions of throwing a party for her [or umemulo]. But due to the global economic recession, my credit rating vis-a-vis the National Credit Act, global warming, the errosion of income by high inflation, global warming and many other factors I could not do either of the things I wanted to do for her. I had not told her about it anyway, so she was not disappointed that it did not happen. I have this principle on not making commitments so that in the event I do not meet them, I am not guilty of breaking a promise. Nonetheless, I am disappointed that I could not do anything for her. She has been a good girl until she finished her Diploma in Mechanical Engineering. Now I comfort myself in that I will continue to support her as she quits her job next year to pursue a BTech. That should make up for not having hosted a party/umemulo.
These are the 3 most important women in my life. There also other women who are most important like my aunts, whom I bought gifts this Christmas for the first time in 27 Christmases I have known them. There is also my… girl, I mean… (ahem) friend who is also very important but is not the subject of this text. You see. I prefer to keep private matters private.
As I was saying, I essentially had a great time this festive season. I am all fired up and ready to work hard in 2009 to work towards a better life for all.
It’s almost an hour before the new year. I think the meat is burning. I have to go.