I’ve been remiss in keeping my Isidingo column going due to work pressures but I’ve tried to keep a beady eye on happenings down at Horizon Deep and in the corridors of power over at ONTV, so I could do a quick catch up.
In a nutshell everything seems to have gone pear shaped since Vusi was appointed to the position of Mine Manager with the invidious task of closing down the mine after the shaft pillar has been mined for the last R60 million worth of ore.
A whole lot of meetings between Vusi, Derek Nyate, Ernest, the stereotypical White fat cat Capitalist who starts every sentence off with “Now look…” and the Union representative Zakes have taken place. Of course there has been posturing, gnashing of teeth, threats and counter threats of a strike, which got a bit old eventually since miners who are about to be retrenched anyway have little power to withhold their labour, in the face of mine closure and possible outsourcing. But this angle was pushed for all it was worth, and the upshot of the matter has been that Vusi, who is essentially a nice guy, wants to act with morals and integrity throughout and has tried to convince the board to offer the mineworkers a share of the profits that come from the mining of the shaft pillar. At this point, the forty percent being offered seems not enough to satisfy the Union or its workers.
Watch this space for more wrangling.
Things took a violent turn this week and Vusi was brutally attacked by balaclava wearing men. He was beaten and left bleeding and unconscious. An ominous warning of things to come from aggrieved mineworkers. Of course this is because there are tensions about the closure but it’s been made a hundred times worse by the fact that Cheryl exposed on her show, that Vusi will be receiving a one million rand performance bonus on successful completion of the mine closure.
In a place like the Deep, this little piece of business information caused all kinds of pawpaw to hit the fan. Suddenly it’s become a matter of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots.’ The age-old socio-econonic realities have reared their ugly heads again. And it’s not just from the people who are losing their jobs. The likes of Maggie with her incessant whining and big bond as well as Zeb Matebane with his ‘victim’ mentality have all taken a kind of covert pleasure from Vusi’s recent misfortune.
What I found the most interesting about the dynamics surrounding this issue, is that it’s no longer an ‘apartheid, historical’ thing where the Whiteys have the economic power and the Blacks are the poor underdogs. What is being reflected here are the facts of today’s economic and business realities. Black business people are having to make the hard decisions and live with the tough realities that it is going to negatively affect other Black and White people and they are being paid handsomely to do so. And irrespective of the colour of the ‘haves’ there will always be criticism and anger directed towards them. Except now, there can be no ‘discrimination ‘or ‘racist’ label attached to it in order to justify it all.
But enough of politics, let’s get onto sex.
As always, there’s little enough of it happening on Isidingo and the only couple who we thought were regularly having some regular nookie seem to have been split apart, if you’ll excuse the pun.
Paul and Steve have been through a dip in their relationship. It all started when Paul had to work with Cherel on her show. Her ball busting tactics are legendary and she has had Paul totally wrapped up in work and conflict with her Jerry Springer wannabe stunts. He started easing off his relationship with Steve, citing work as an issue and emphasizing that work had to come first. Poor Steve tried to take the initiative to get some romance back in their lives and suggested some time away. But Paul didn’t want to play. He just wanted to work, and the result is that when Steve’s big fat Greek uncle in Cape Town got an idea in his head to produce a combined cookery and a travel show, Steve was enticed to help with the production.
The enticement came in the form of a sexy Italian chef who the uncle sent up to meet Steve and who pitched the idea to ONTV. Of course this chef confessed that he does not play on the girl’s side of the fence and this may have just sweetened the pie for Steve. To be fair though, there has been great interest in this show from Lee and Rajesh and now Steve and luscious Luke have a month in which to make a pilot show for screening to ONTV. There is however one snag. They are creating the show in Cape Town, and if it takes off, future episodes will be filmed at all kinds of exotic travel destinations. Tough job, but someone has to do it, and it seems Steve may just be that man.
So bye-bye Paul, you can work your ass off now, see if Steve cares! I just hope it’s not bye- bye Steve for a long time. He’s one of the characters I enjoy on the show, but there was a line of dialogue in which he told Paul he can’t guarantee or promise he will be back which made me think, this could be adios for a while
As I suspected, the whole Tim and Natasha attraction has been toe curlingly awkward. That’s because Tim has bungled his way through trying to woo her by serenading her, inviting her out for drinks and just being stupidly blind. Natasha who has been aware of Tim’s crush on her, has been confiding about it and laughing her way through it all with Frank. He refers to her now as ‘Mrs Robinson,’ reminiscent of ‘The Graduate’ in which an older woman seduces a young man. The problem is that Tim is hardly a man. He’s a wimp with terrible dress sense who has no clue on seduction and even more alarmingly; he takes advice from Maggie. Her last suggestion that he kiss Natasha led to an all out surprise lip assault on her in a lift that caused her to recoil, scream and flee like a rapist was after her. It was all too embarrassing to watch. I simply can’t see this ever progressing. I did however notice an easy kind of rapport with flirtatious lingering glances and suggestive smiles happening between Natasha and Frank in the midst of all this toy boy banter. Perhaps they are next in line to slip between the sheets. Who knows?
Now there are two things that are irritating me with Isidingo at the moment:
The first is this whole new approach that Lee has adopted since her mother has reappeared. Suddenly she has become hell bent on destroying Barker at all costs. But more than that, she’s become dumb. I mean, why on earth would anyone who has been harbouring daddy’s little dirty secrets that she benefited directly from, suddenly want to spill the beans and tell all to everyone? I don’t understand it, but out of the blue Lee has spilt all the dirt on the San Fernando coup which Barker manipulated and which she knew about and sent a camera crew to film. Obviously Anthea and Harriet were shocked, but for the life of me, I can’t see what benefit there was in opening this little can of worms for Lee. And all of a sudden, Orlando, the faithful butler has developed flapping ears. He has overheard snippets and any time there is talk of this kind he manages to “be around” to get the inside track.
Do you sense a little dose of blackmail coming on, or what?
The second thing that I’m finding hard to swallow at the moment is the whole Cherel show. First it was the Thandeka jail exposeV, then the Barker paternity debacle, Vusi’s million buck package was next and now, still on the scrounge for something original, if not intelligent, she has hit upon the idea of exposing Letti’s shoplifting episode and the fact that charges were dropped.
Is it just me, or is this all lame? It’s like the scriptwriters have run out of a part for Cherel and now she’s like an annoying fly buzzing all over the place looking for attention.
So aside from the fact that Len is now wearing his hair with a bit of a fringe onto his forehead which makes me laugh every time I see him, that’s about all that’s happened on Isidingo over the last week and a half.
The big questions now are:
Whether Tim’s shattered ego and manhood will ever recover from Natasha’s rejection.
Whether Frank will show Natasha what it’s like to be pursued by a ‘real’ man.
Whether Vusi will live to get his million rand performance bonus or whether he will call up spirits to help him.
Whether Zeb Matebane will kill Cherel if she exposes Letti on national television.
Whether Steve and Luke will not only cook the chicken but do the funky chicken together down in mountain territory.
Whether Barker will become Orlando’s butler.
Whether Len will change his hairstyle back.
What are you desperately hoping to see?
*** Catch Isidingo on SABC 3 at 18h30 on weekdays.