5. The Happy Ending
    Pelicans - Thanks

Thanks : Thanks, Special Assignment

MANY viewers watched Tuesday night's Special Assignment (SABC 3, 21h30) which featured an exposé of the aquarium's penguin killings.

There is no doubt the team did a great job interviewing "Meraai" or "Francina", the-16-year-old girl who finally admitted to killing the pelican. She and her foul accomplices should be sentenced to a few years of clearing the SPCA's cages of dog poo or in some way serving the community they disappointed and outraged.

Not only did they commit an atrocious act, but they have also brought disrepute to East London, giving the rest of the country the notion that we're a bunch of genetic misfits who slaughter innocent birds.

Unfortunately Special Assignment played this to the hilt, referring to us as a "a stagnant port" and to the West Bank as "the seedy part of town" and supplying the kind of soundtrack that conjours up visions of hillbilly backwardness reminiscent of the film Deliverance.

Even the silent movie-type sub-titles suggested we're a throwback to a time long gone. Bye-bye tourists.

Barbara Hollands
 

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