Two gala evenings, worthy winners and The Biggest Loser

Last night I attended the SA Premier Business Awards with my wife Diana, who was a finalist in the Media category. The awards, dreamed up and hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry, are in their second year and we weren't expecting much of an event. We were surprised on arriving at the Sandton Convention Centre to see the place locked down by security. What could be going on, we thought? An hour later we found out: JZ was in town, at a place near us: 20 metres away, to be precise. Even from that distance, he looked very small, insignificant even. The reason?  Nkandla.



That afternoon, South Africans were glued to their TVs, radios and online streaming feeds listening to Thuli Madonsela reading the executive summary from her report on Nkandla, 'Secure in Comfort' (the barbed understatement here is deadly!). Jacob Zuma arrived only a few hours after she finished, and judging by his demeanour he looked as if the pressure was finally getting to him. He looked a broken man.

After Minister Rob Davies introduced him as the keynote speaker, he walked slowly from his table at the front of the auditorium and mounted the steps to the podium. The pause before he began to speak must have been a good 15 seconds. Zuma is not known for his fluent delivery in English, but even for him this was going at a snail's pace. His ten minute speech was all about the 20 years of democracy, the good story to tell. Sitting in front of him were up to 6 cabinet ministers and more deputy ministers, Leslie Sedibe from Proudly South African (one of the sponsors), executives from GIBS and ABSA (the other sponsors) and other nattily dressed courtiers.

Yes, I use the word courtier advisedly because without the royalty-like status he enjoys he surely would be a Presidential has-been by now. Nkandla is Zuma's Little Bighorn. It has to be, surely. How can he survive the catalogue of damning indictments laid at his door, the years of dissembling by him and his ministers, dodging the bullets not just from the Public Protector but from former colleagues (read what Ben Turok and Ronnie Kasrils have to say), not to mention the DA?

The dreadful thing is, he will survive - for now, at least until after the election and probably well into his second term as president. Because so many in the party he serves are spineless, corrupt and self-serving. Yes, they serve each other, they rely on each other to maintain their grip on power and if one falls, particularly the leader, the whole house of cards collapses. They can't afford for this to happen so when cock-ups occur they have to cover them up or spin themselves out of trouble. It's nauseating and millions of loyal ANC supporters must be heart-broken to see it happening.

It was though we inhabited a parallel universe last night: one where Nkandla was on everyone's lips, the President and his culpable ministers were on their way out and finally accountability meant something; the other where Nkandla did not exist, where Zuma reigned supreme and everyone showed obecience to the great man, untouchable head of the mighty liberator, the ANC. A very surreal experience.

Ones cynicism was accentuated by the awarding of two of the 'Premiers' to Eskom. Yes, unbelievably. One of them was for technology innovation. There were sniggers of laughter when its logo appeared on screen.

Things lightened up a bit when Jacob Zuma presented  Dr Sam Motsuenyane with the Lifetime Achievement Award, alongside last year's winner Richard Maponya. The venerable Dr Sam (87 years old) thanked the President but pointedly said government was not doing enough for small business - too true. Motsuenyane and Maponya are both icons of black business, but sadly their trailblazing style of entrepreneurship has been superceded by BEE which Maponya detests for producing rent seekers rather than risk-takers.

Being in the business of event management, I was much more interested in the staging, design and entertainment elements of the evening than in the mostly boring speeches, which were mercifully short. Very impressive was MC Carol Tshabalala, who read the autocue (invisible to the audience, located at the foot of the stage) without a blip. The music - Soweto Gospel Choir and Idols contestant Lloyd Cele - was excellently produced. The three course meal was delicious with the main course still hot when served. Things even got off to a pretty prompt start, with guests checked in on iPads as we arrived and finalists shown to their reserved tables by friendly hostesses.

Topping it all was a winner coming from our table - Liz Fish from Carte Blanche, for her programme on growing businesses in Cape Town. (My wife Diana was naturally disappointed but gracious in conceding).

One thought did cross my mind as the names of the finalists were read out was how, from the hundreds of thousands if not millions of registered businesses in South Africa, did the judges find applicants and select the finalists? It was very odd that some of the finalists appeared in more than one category (Eskom and SAAB Grinaker being two). Were the judging panel scraping the barrel for finalists? In the Media category three were from Carte Blanche (thanks to the highly efficient Executive Editor Jessica Pitchford seen here on the right, next to Liz Fish, Diana Lucas Chance and Angus Begg), the fourth from one from Kaya FM. Let's hope they have better luck next year.

I could not help compare the Premiers with the Naledis, which Diana and I went to on Monday night. Mondays are theatres' night off, so all the thespians and their (all dolled up) dogs poured in to the Lyric Theatre at Gold Reef City for the 11th annual Naledi Theatre Awards organised by our dear friends Des and Dawn Lindberg.

Des and Dawn are a legend in their own right, hitting the 1960s musical scene as one of South Africa's first folk duos, with songs such as And the Seagull's Name was Nelson gently rocking their fans. They produced the first multi-racial version of Godspell in South Africa, which was banned by the apartheid government, and hosted their famous soirees in their neo-Gothic Victorian home in Houghton for many years before moving to Parktown North.

The Naledis was their brainchild and has been suckled and nurtured through many tough years with little financial support - unlike the no-expenses-spared Premiers. Then they persuaded the Lotto to give them some money, and this year Auto & General were proud headline sponsors, with founder Douw Steyn's glamorous wife Carolyn taking centre stage.

It was a very slick production, bar a malfunction in the slide projection system which left Dawn gawping on stage with no audio cue for a few seconds. But she recovered beautifully and the show carried on. In past years MCs have tended to be comedians (the hilarious Alan Committee and Nic Raboniwitz among them) but this time Des and Dawn (possibly with a nudge of encouragement from Naledi Chairman Dali Tambo) chose poet, author and storyteller Lebo Mashile. who brought not only wit but an elegant charm and classiness to the show.

Apart from great entertainment value, the Naledis have a profounder significance in celebrating the theatrical arts and their flourishing status in South Africa. This year, for the first time I believe, the Minister of Arts & Culture, Paul Mashatile, gave the keynote address and took the opportunity to restate the government's commitment to the arts and theatre in particular (though it was embarrassing when he referred to Dawn as Mr Dawn Lindberg). The Naledis have been heavily criticised for being an elite club for Whites, but if that were ever true Monday's show shut up the snarls from the wings. Winner after winner was not only not White, but took time in their speeches to thank the Naledis, their theatrical mentors (often White) and the entrepreneurial producers for launching their careers in theatre. It was a pity the MEC for Arts & Culture, Lebogang Maile, was not there to present one of the awards so he could see all this with his own eyes.

I mention this because it goes to the heart of what I said in my last blog post, about affirmative action only really working organically, with committed leaders and willing newcomers joining hands to boost both the careers of the previously disadvantaged or marginalised and the institution of theatre itself. Left to its own devices, and with enlightened and committed leaders from Barney Simon to Lara Foot Newton, the theatrical world has transformed totally and is beginning to produce the quality of productions we got used to in the protest decade of the 80s.

So well done Des and Dawn, Hazel Feldman and Pieter Thorien (Jersey Boys), Fatima Dike and Mbongeni Ngema (Lifetime Achievement), Lizz Meiring (Executive Director's Award) and all the nominees and winners for a fantastic year of theatre. Power to your elbow in 2014!