December: A month of madness

Illanga liyaphoma ezintabeni, siyabuya sizalwani zethu mama… iminyanga eminingi singasababoni.… abanye abesko kulomhlaba……… ……imphefumloyabo engalala ngoxolo imisebenzi yabo iyobalwa zinqwathini buyani ni buyele emakhaya.. buyani sizwe silendile nina…… These are lyrics extracted from Dr. Rebecca Malope’s song ‘Buyani’. The youth and probably a lot of the middle aged fellows out there would not know that Dr. Malope used to dish out some bubble gum before it got saturated with fame wannabes thus prompting her to opt to get closer to the Lord. Anyway, this is not about Dr. Malope, I haven’t solicited her authority and consent to start doing her praise singing. Today I drove to the border post to buy some energade and newspapers and was intrigued by the more than normal number of Basotho who ply their trade in the diaspora entering the Kingdom. I doubt I am even correct to call their second home the diaspora for most of the land across our borders is stolen land. Tough luck for CIC Malema and his EFF brigade the South African Parliament did not quite support their proposed land expropriation without compensation bill. Had it seen the light of the day, Lesotho would not hesitate to join the list of those whose land was inappropriately taken away from them leaving them with the rugged land that the Mountain Kingdom is today. Away with land grab issues, but to what we are going through and are going to endure for the next three or so weeks inShallah. For those abathanda indabazabantu, this time I am not making any reference to political issues but the festive season. This is the time when our brothers and sisters from all over the world, locally and internationally will start the annual pilgrimage back to their origins, well I will refer to it in this manner. Pardon me if I am wrong. The Holy Bible teaches us that the original trek was as a result of a census that our Lord Jesus Christ birth came to be, the one whose birthday is celebrated by well over four billion Christians the world over. In a stable for that matter. Christians, particularly us Bantu folk, I don’t know about others but I know that we Bantu are traditional in terms of how we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are taught that Joseph and Mary had to leave the comfort of their residences and trek all the way back to Jerusalem, and we relive the same trek and during this month, we drive in all sorts of directions to celebrate the birth of Jesus and the New Year. We move from the cities and suburbs all the way to the most rural of places just as it was done in those days. The birth of a baby is a continuum of our covenant with our Maker…’Lona atang le ngatafale le tlale haholo lefats’eng mme le ngatafale teng. Genesis 9:7.’ One that we as mankind celebrate year in and year out. We throw parties of varied magnitudes. The Christmas period is one of such birthdays that are celebrated year in year out, not even the pandemic deters us from celebrating. Because Jesus was born to save us from our sins, and in death he did so, I am reluctant to say that even the many deaths we experience during this time of the year serve as a fulfilment of the scripture and we consequentially celebrate death as the same covenant with the Lord. As we celebrate the aide-mémoire of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, we should do so cognizant of the fact that the economy is no longer the same as the one during our parent’s times. I know we have inherited this lavish expenditure and celebrations from our parents and will most definitely pass it down our offspring. I want to advise and urge my brothers and sisters to change their expenditure patterns and still be able to celebrate this festive season. Instead of spending huge amounts of monies on parties and festivities that have no return on the expenditure, can’t we instead have events where there are very few people where we will continue to observe Covid-19 protocols? By now we are all aware that the prevailing climatic conditions are doing the covid-19 transmissions a huge favour and as mankind cannot compete with this virus. Financially, the Covid-19 protocols should be a blessing in disguise for our survival in the next year. Instead of cooking meals which we will, in almost all probabilities not consume, can’t we cut down on the quantities of meals we cook and rather do braais with vegs and papa instead of the traditional seven colours which the next day become food for the pigs and dogs. Not to say they don’t deserve the treat, but not due to our stupidity. Fortunately this year the Christmas Day and New Year’s Day happen to fall on a weekend so this might help in managing our cash flows. Those of us who can’t do without the golden liquids, yes the holy waters, can adopt economies of scale principle by buying what we will consume at one go. I mean, instead of driving to the water holes on more than one visit, why not buy once and save petrol and inconveniences. For example, if Johnny Walker has brewed enough, instead of going to the outlet every time the bottle runs out, I could buy say three or four bottles and accessories and save on the petrol. Besides this way, impulsive purchasing of those goods that one does not need can be averted. The money that we can save can be used to provide for the family’s commitments such as fees, meals etc as we begin the New Year. If you are to have visitors, try to keep them to a minimum to avoid having undesired consequences at the beginning of the year. Avoid visiting others as if you are the anointed one and obliged to spread the word. You have phones, use them. Molimo! Our brothers and sisters phew, they will want to share their newly acquired accents and pay courtesy visits and share some fictitious experiences and knowledge and in the process infect or get infected with the virus unnecessarily thereby rendering their return to the diaspora and their jobs a huge risk. I say this because I know how it feels to be grounded by a bout of delinquency over a week or so and fail to carry out ones obligations in the New Year. As we welcome our brothers and sisters from the diaspora, let us spread the message and most importantly, let us keep the infection rates at a minimum so that our Government doesn’t force us into a summer hibernation. We know that these hibernations we are ordered to go into are more costly than when the economy is open. Mokhosi Mohapi