Flutes or a Bunch of Fives in Bloem

While the Champenois ditch fiddly flutes for their fizz in favour of white wine glasses, the ANC has an alternative. Toasting the centenary of the ANC in Bloem yesterday, the deputy president (and future one, if Juju has his way) Kgalema Motlanthe told the crowd “we also toast that the ANC in the next 100 years have the ability to feeling [sic] very deeply [for] the suffering of our people” according to The New Age (one country, one paper) who continued “Motlanthe told the crowd that those who did not have glasses should use their clenched fists in the toast.”

Nothing should be read in to the deputy president proposing a toast as Jacob Zuma boasts he is the only member of the ANC who does not drink. But clenched fists replacing Riedels will be prophetic if the ANC does not rapidly address poverty. Remaining in French mode, the ANC proceeded to next distribute cake to the masses, obeying the instruction of Queen Marie Antoinette (whose left breast famously inspired the design of another disgarded Champagne cup) to “let them eat cake.” Or in winespeak “qu’ils mangent de la brioche” with brioche a prominent note in Moët, house bubbly on the national gravy train with Nero on the fiddle, the house band.