Durbs-by-the-see the rot

Durban has been on my mind lately, and not just because I'm once again trapped in Paris with the weather turning faster than John Steen-huisen on matters of principle.

- BEN TROVATO

On Friday it will be 16°C in the 11th arrondissement and 27°C in Ballito. Sure, there are things you can get in Paris in winter that you can't get in Ballito. Hypothermia is just one of them.

What's really worrying is seeing posts on social media predicting that the MK Party will take control of Durban in next year's local government elections.

They're nowhere near ready. Their leaders have only ever been lightly tainted by scandal.

Sure, the party has the likes of Brian Molefe, Lucky Montana, Des van Rooyen and Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla among its leadership, but I fear they might not be criminally ambitious enough to foist real change upon Durban.

After all, not one of them has even been to prison.

That's why I was pleased to hear that Zuma had appointed Tony Yengeni as the party's second deputy president. Here's a man who has actually served time for corruption. He's been behind bars.

He knows about aggressive turnaround strategies, and not just in communal showers either.

Right now, the city council is a political salmagundi of limp vegetables, decomposing fruits and complete nuts.

This motley polychromatic salad has wilted badly over time. You only have to visit Durban to see what the city needs right now - a shakeup by former convicts and career criminals who understand that to make an omelette you need to break a few heads.