I+understand+you+Dali,+Renee+Bonorchis,+Business+Day

Business Day, Johannesburg, 02 November 2006
=I understand you Dali, even if no-one else does=


 * Renee Bonorchis**

DEAR Dali, It seems you are much maligned these days and perhaps much misunderstood. Poor you! In my role, I try to understand why it is that leaders do what they do, and having been following your case, there are a number of observations I could make. Not least because what you are going through is what any CE of a company goes through.

And since you seem so keen on wordy commentary in newspapers, I thought I’d reply in kind.

As you and I both know, the Companies Act may call for you to act in the best interests of your company, the venerable SABC, but let’s face it — anyone who’s someone knows which side their bread is buttered!

Love up your shareholders and they’ll love you back — that’s the rule. It’s a no-brainer. After all, the guys who hired you could just as easily fire you.

If you, like other public figures, are planning lucrative empowerment deals after your tenure at the SABC, it would just be stupid to jeopardise your career now, wouldn’t it? No-one seems to get that. It must be lonely being you.

And then, Dali (I can call you Dali, can’t I? Feel free to call me Ren), there is so much being made of that little piece in City Press the other week. Can’t a guy blow off steam any more, I keep asking myself? It must have felt good when, hunched over your computer, you bashed out every vitriolic adverb and big word you could think of.

I reckon you hit the “send” button a bit before you meant to, but you are only human, after all.

Then there’s the issue of blacklisting. Dali, I am asking you as a journalistic brother, please, oh please won’t you blacklist me? It would do my career the world of good. Right now I am, I suppose in your eyes, not far off being a barbarian, but I have big ambitions and since Comrade Zuma hasn’t sued me, I am very keen to qualify for your list.

And I really must talk to you about your continued fight to discipline your radio presenter, John Perlman. Everyone knows you don’t nail your bosses, especially on air. Doh! You have made this clear from your elevated position in the way that you deal with your bosses, and if Perlman isn’t switched on enough to get it then he probably shouldn’t be working for a man like you!

I am also getting a bit tired of the constant references to the SABC’s code of ethics yadda yadda blah. Haven’t people figured out that mission statements are merely for decor? It’s about looking impressive and really, really serious. But you know what? I bet if you had to march into the top 50 boardrooms in SA today and scrutinise their mission statements, you’d find no one was paying them one whit of attention. And yet you are taking the rap.

Maybe it’s time to make up a scandalous news story about some other poor sod taking heat over a so-called “lack of ethics”. You know, deflect the attention. A bit like Clinton bombing the Middle East just when the issue of “that woman” came to a head … so to speak. It’s just an idea. Use it, don’t use it.

And finally, Dali, I’m glad you have noticed there is a big conspiracy going on to undermine democracy, oust the government and return to a state of calamity and oppression. I have been on to this for a while now and lately the voices in my head have been getting louder, indicating that the time of reckoning is drawing near.

What can we do about this, I wonder? I have heard that writing long blurbs in newspapers is not usually effective, nor is slinging insults, maligning editors, throwing toys or stamping your feet. No, the revolution needs more than that!

I haven’t yet figured out what it needs exactly, but from what I hear, neither have you. Hiding in some comforting delusions could be the way to go for now.

So Dali, my main man, when you have decided what to do next, be sure to give me a call.

Yours truly,

Renee “not just another barbarian” Bonorchis.


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/ManagementAndLeadership.aspx?ID=BD4A308245**

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