Mantashe on exec exodus from Eskom, Transnet – ‘like mice running from methane in a mine’

Clever mice. Not so clever politicians.

I personally know two (white males, devoted to their jobs) senior ex-Eskom personnel. Both saw the writing on the wall when junior (black) colleagues with very limited experience and no institutional knowledge were promoted to positions where my two friends had to kowtow to their new bosses. Both left. One took early retirement, the other went on to become the South African MD of a multinational (electrical) corporation and is now a very wealthy man. The sqabbling between Mantashe and Gordham was irrelevant.

Mice can smell methane in mines and are able to run away from it. Mice have a very keen sense of smell, and they are able to detect methane at much lower concentrations than humans can. Methane is a colorless and odorless gas, but it does have a slightly sweet smell that mice can detect. When mice smell methane, they will typically run away from it as quickly as possible. This is because methane is a flammable gas, and it can be explosive at high concentrations. If a mouse inhales too much methane, it can die. Miners have long used mice as early warning systems for methane gas. If miners see mice running away from a certain area, they will know that there is methane present, and they will evacuate the area. There have been many cases of miners being saved by mice. In one case, a group of miners were working in a mine when they saw mice running away from a certain area. The miners evacuated the area, and just a few minutes later, there was a methane explosion. The miners were all unharmed because they had heeded the warning of the mice. Another example is the case of a miner named John Cadman. Cadman was working in a mine when he saw a mouse running away from him. Cadman stopped and listened, and he could hear the sound of gas escaping. Cadman knew that he was in danger, so he ran away from the gas. Just a few seconds later, there was a methane explosion. Cadman was the only miner who survived the explosion because he had heeded the warning of the mouse.

As a youngster in the 80's living in the UK I was ashamed to be a South African because of apartheid. Now I am embarrassed by what the drooling gravy guzzling imbeciles in the ANC government do to ruin the reputation of our country virtually every day.