TRANSPORT MINISTER IMPRESSES, AND OTHER GLIMMERS OF HOPE

IT IS remarkable that some fingered by the Zondo commission or involved in other scandals remain in parliament, and some hold high office in the ANC or elsewhere as the DA pointed out in its angry response to the dismissal from the cabinet of Andrew Whitfield.

- BRIAN INGPEN

Amid the despair and frustration that ANC double standards cause to honest, tax-paying people, four glimmers of hope have appeared in my firmament.

The first surrounded Monday's court appearance of prominent suspects in the Prasa locomotive scandal something is happening after the Zondo commission's painstaking work.

My second glimmer of hope was Transport Minister Barbara Creecy’s address to the Press Club lunch on Monday. She was impressive.

Unlike her bumbling predecessor on whose watch the rail network finally collapsed and nothing was fixed, she displays an in-depth understanding of components within her immense, sprawling portfolio.

Besides having to deal with complex and challenging aspects in the lawless taxi industry, the trucking sector that can be turbulent at times, and ongoing road maladies, she also has under her wing all the state-captured enterprises, except Eskom.

That workload, I assume, leaves little time for this remarkable lady to attend to the vital shipping industry.

As the full-house of journos, diplomats, Stellenbosch students and a group from Lawhill Maritime Centre tucked into tasty chicken on a delicious mushroom-rice base, the minister spoke generally about her extensive portfolio.