The Bible says in the 16th chapter of the book of Proverbs that “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall†(Proverbs 16:18 KJV).
News that the National Covid-19 Secretariat Risk Communication and Community Manager Baroane Phenithi brings about reembrace of that verse in the Big Book. It is news surely to be received with a sense of relief and celebration in the of quarters of those who have had occasion to deal with him directly or otherwise because of his demeanour.
There is a demarcation line between confidence and utter haughtiness, which the Bible says precedes a fall, and it is only in the latter that he could be accurately described.
First of all, he is that guy who literally sprouted out like a mushroom, whom one day we woke up to him as the spokesperson of the country’s pandemic fighting body, and soon after breaking onto the scene was already where the sun doesn’t shine.
Newsrooms slowly started having an attitude towards NACOSEC news, not for the news but for having to deal with the gentleman. He might not have been fired, yet, but the fact that he will barely be heard from and or seen is enough consolation.
Phenithi is infamous for his vainglorious demeanour, often rubbing off stakeholders including the media the wrong way in his attempt of representing NACOSEC in the public eye. He is the one who once told musicians and deejays that their equipment would not rot even if it remained stuck without being used, and recently said sporting activities were barred because of being rogue and with “no orderâ€.
Therefore, the decision to keep him in the back where he gets to deal not with the people, is very much welcome.
In weight, the decision equates to one seen in the letter apparently inscribed by the Premier Dr Moeketsi Majoro, to relief Minister of Forestry, Range Management and Land Reclamation Motlatsi Maqelepo.
In like light, Maqelepo is that guy who, upon assuming a ministerial appointment had his stop be the national television where clouted about how hard work had earned him a ministerial post hence he deserved every good coming to him, in the form of ministerial benefits.
It was however, not long before he was put to the test to see if he could deliver as Health minister when our people of the diaspora had to return to work in South Africa in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead of seeing how best to aid them, he took to social media to show pictures of him instead giving them dilute juice and Indian stew and not helping their course.