By Alec Hogg
My heart sank after arriving at OR Tambo from London yesterday when seeing we’d come at the same time as another superliner, this one from Hong Kong. The last time I’d seen such a long passport control queue was at JFK in New York. That turned into a three hour ordeal where the excitement was when a lady behind me actually fainted (there was no air conditioning).
But we were in for a pleasant surprise. The queue moved at a rapid clip and when the bright eyed Home Affairs official received the compliment she was due, back flashed a smile with “we’re pretty efficient here, aren’t we?” The Joburg airport baggage handlers also on the ball, and my two bags and I were through customs comfortably under an hour after the plane touched down.
On the subject of world class South Africans, Biznews community member Lucas Scheepers gave me a gentle prod on a glaring omission in yesterday’s newsletter about my visit to Christ’s College at Cambridge University. It was also the alma mater of one Jan Christiaan Smuts, admitted there in 1891 and qualified with an LLB in 1894 – just in time to head home to give his former hosts some bloody noses in the Boer War.
Smuts picked up his relationship with Cambridge University in 1948 when he broke a long line of Dukes and Lords to be elected as its Chancellor, a position he held until his death in 1950. He is the only foreigner to have held this historic and prestigious position whose first incumbent was elected in 1215. Quite a guy was our “Oom Jannie”.
Quote sent in by Doug Henwood
