Scene Four
from The Mother of All Eating
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2019
Summary
THE MAN enters, with his briefcase. He is now himself, not Joe.
THE MAN: Well, that's what happened to Joe. You see, he had all the opportunities to make it big there, but he messed things up. He tried to be a goody-goody who wanted to stop everyone from eating. At the same time he was a thorn in the asshole of the expert managing director. Then one day, just in front of the LNDC Centre there, some crooks tried to hijack the MD's car at gunpoint. A shot was fired, which missed him or perhaps grazed him. He accused Joe of being responsible for that. I mean Joe would not do a thing like that, but the MD said Joe must have hired the crooks to kill him and steal his car. So he said it was no longer safe for him in Lesotho. He withdrew his country's aid and left the country.
He laughs for a long time.
THE MAN: The Honourable Minister was very angry, of course. Everyone hated Joe. But at that stage there was a crisis at the Power Supply Corporation. They could not expel Joe, for he was the only one who knew the job of running the corporation. So they made him acting MD. Now if he was smart that should have been his opportunity to make amends and prove himself to his minister and colleagues. He should have shown everybody that he was capable of eating as well as any man. But no! His stupidity triumphs again. Oh, I have never seen anyone so stupid in my life. That's when I finally lost all respect for Joe. He is beyond redemption.
There was a contract for a multimillion rand project that had to be carried out for his Power Supply Corporation. Joe could have made a killing there. Well, contractors tendered for the job. Joe employed independent consultants to evaluate the tenders. They chose a Swedish company which had its own finance at three percent. It had tendered for twenty million rands and, like I say, was financing the project itself at only three percent interest. The Honourable Minister and his Permanent Secretary were very angry with him. They had wanted him to take a forty-six million rand tender instead.
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- Information
- Fools, Bells and the Habit of EatingThree Satires, pp. 23 - 38Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2002