A 'Tokoloshe' is a mysterious and evil spirit from Zulu mythology which can enter its victim and turn him into an evil and malevolent creature. A good person can gradually turn into an ogre after the invasion by a Tokoloshe. The best example of this can be found in Kofi Osei's book, Hello Africa, Tell Me, How Are You Doing: A Noble Continent in Painful Renaissance, Hello Africa Publishing 2006. "Here's how the tokoloshe works. The newcomer, a populist president, who seized or won power on the zero tolerance to corruption platform, pledges that he will serve only the constitutional two terms and then go back to the military barracks, the lecture hall, trade union job or the commercial business he misses so much. Soon after, he makes his first European or trans-Atlantic trip in the presidential jet of lacquered mahogany and burnished leather interior. By the time the $30 million Citation or Gulfstream has whisked him silently above the clouds to the presidential suite in Paris' Crillion or New York's Waldorf-Astoria, and after basking in the echo of his first international applause to the speech at a conference, and after signing the road or oil contract of which a good percentage of the cost is lodged in the secret bank account he has just opened in Zurich, His Excellency is well and truly crooked. By the time he flies back home, he wants the jet, the limos, the gun salutes and the unlimited expense accounts to be permanent features in his life. Tokoloshe!"
The enduring curse of the Tokoloshe is that those affected see themselves as absolved from the rules which bind the political systems which gave them office. They have no regard for the poor and disenfranchised as they don't need them for anything. They do not fear the others afflicted by the Tokoloshe condition because they know they are playing by the same absence of rules.
This, unfortunately, is why there is another Finance Minister in charge; a trusted "Vula Boy" who may yet save the economy or limit its downside.
[i] Sam Sole, Craig McKune, Tabelo Timse, Stefaans Brummer, "How Myeni broke SAA", 27/11/15
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