You know sometimes you must just sit back and think of where you come from. Especially if you find that you are struggling to break through somehow. In many cases this process helps you to see how much you have not changed maybe in that you are repeating what you did many years ago. If you write or keep a journal like myself you will obviously just get those old journals or even diaries to go through the entries. Well this is what I did recently and it really opened up my eyes to some shocking reality. In short I realized that I needed change, I am working on it.
So, as I was going through all these diaries/journals, can I just say they were moleskines, at least most of them. I stumbled upon one which I used in 2009 I think. A lot happened in 2009 but there’s one particular entry that caught my attention. It was an entry made in August i think. This day was not an easy one at at all. I had managed to get an appointment with someone who was important at that time and I would not let anything stop me from meeting him. Even though he was supposed to be based in Bloemfontein we had to meet in Pretoria.
I had flown into Johannesburg, had no money as I had used everything I had on the flight ticket. This is when we were preparing for the soccer World Cup. There was construction work everywhere, literally everywhere.
This post is not about that meeting, it is about what happened between the airport an the place where the meeting was going to take place. But since I mentioned that the meeting was with someone important at the time, I will say who it was and a bit about why we had the meeting. I was meeting Prof Jansen the VC of the University of the Free State. Of course the meeting was about how we can assist the University to transform. This after we had pitched to the university in 2008 after the Reitz 4 saga. The winners of this change management tender was Igubu which was run by Rudi Buys who later became the student dean and then left. So, we were seeing already that the IGubu model was not working and trying to pitch the ideas we had before to the new VC. So, we pitched and he spoke for most of the time. A man with a plan….then… I was with Andre and we met at a restaurant in Brooklyn.
Going back to the time between the airport an the meeting place. Since I was given a very short notice that I could meet this man, I really did not have much money for this, but this was an important man and it was an opportunity of a lifetime. We finally could get our project off the ground if he agreed with what we wanted to do in the first place.
So, i had been travelling a lot in my previous job and therefore flew a lot around the country. At every airport you are obviously confronted with the taxi drivers some waiting for people that have booked already and some just hoping to get people who have just landed. As i was going down the escalators, i saw a guy that looked friendly and decided to go to him and actually ask if i can get a lift with him. He was waiting for someone, but i knew that they person would be sitting in the backseat. The name on the board was also of a black person. so it was easier to just talk to this guy and get a lift. Lucky enough he was going to Pretoria which is where i was going. He agreed to take me with, the passenger he was waiting for arrived and we made our way to the car. A short guy who was just serious from the time he got to us. He went into the back and i sat in front with the driver, i forgot his name. Anyway, the guy in the back just sat there and kept quiet. We started making small talk, i think this is what messed up everything.
The passenger made a phone call which was to the owner of the cab i think and complained to him that he was not alone with the driver in the car. The next thing he was talking about being disrespected by the driver after he dropped the call. At this time we were already on the R21 on our way to PTA. The driver then got the call just after the man behind had called. He was told to drop me off immediately. he tried to say i will drop him off at the next garage, but the guy on the other side would not have it any other way, he insisted, and i was dropped off really in the middle of nowhere. I got a lift a few minutes later and got to my meeting on time.
Morale of the story……..there are other things that matter more than race
Given SHINGANGE 