Tie tripping (not)

What between the Raghunath´s erratic schedule and my own, I haven´t seen much of the man lately. I did, however, manage to spy him on Sunday night.

After a pretty psychedelic weekend at Oppikoppi, I was anticipating being truly fully hey shoo wowed by his tie, but it was disappointingly straight for a change. Dull gold and white stripes, that didn´t play with my eyes. C´mon Mahendra - where is the festival spirit?!

In an interesting aside: I did notice that the credits at the end of the news appeared in yellow and white, as opposed to their customary white only. Do you think the production team is matching the credits to Mahendra´s tie de jour?

Riaan steals the limelight

Time to confess my dirty little secret. The first time I ever thought about newsreaders and the ties they wore, it wasn´t Mahendra who was the man in question. It was Riaan. Riaan Cruywagen. I spotted a newspaper article about Riaan´s choice of tie - he had inadvertently (?) worn one in ANC colours. I don´t recall if this happened pre- or post-1994, but it was around that time. Dear Mahendra rarely faces this problem: pink, purple and peachy tones aren´t generally political colours. Unless he´s trying to tell us something about his sexuality?

Anyway, back to Riaan. I was presently surprised to find a documentary about him, Don´t Shoot showing at Encounters. I liked the way the filmmaker tied his newsreading career to the transition in South Africa, although some of Mnr Cruywagen´s responses to questions were a little too slick. ("I don´t write the news, I read it".)

But I am alarmed to find that die Cruywagen seems to be maintaining his popularity over our friend Mahendra. His fan club even suggest that: "Riaan Cruywagen knows the news before it happens". Whatever. If he does, that is hardly professional - and he claimed in the doccie that professionalism is his byword.

We all know Mahendra is a consummate professional - after all, maintaining his appearance and selecting just the right tie is way more important than any content he actually has to read. What do you guys say to a doccie on Mahendra at next year´s Encounters? We have a filmmaker, a scriptwriter and a PR whore in the house after all. Let´s do it!

Please note: Don´t Shoot shows as part of the Why Democracy? series at Encounters. You can still catch a glimpse of Riaan in Jozi this Saturday at 2.45 or in the Mother City in July. Don´t Shoot shows with Iron Ladies of Liberia - a wonderful doccie about Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. If only all heads of state were female Mahendra might be reading a very different news each night!

Mahendra loses sparkle

Watching the news isn't a fun experience Particularly not in South Africa. That's why I tend to rely on Mahendra's ties to bring some sparkle to the occasion.

However, tonight Mahendra was wearing a monotone dark-blue tie, a light-blue shirt, and a grey jacket. Boring. And it certainly didn't take my mind off the xenophobia in South Africa, or the situation in Zimbabwe.

Come on Mahendra, you need to up your game!

Shimmering Tsepiso

It's hard to keep my eagle eye focused on the more frivolous aspects of the news, when the actual news stories are so horrifying...

Tsepiso did give me a laugh last night though, when she referred to "South Africa's biggest mineworkers' union, the National Union of MIneworkers...". Like, duh!

She was wearing a shirt that I'm sure was one of Mahendra's ties in a previous life. The shiny fabric had a pattern of thin black-and-gold stripes. They shimmered in front of my eyes until it seemed as if she were a living optical illusion... Bizarre.