The Ndundulu Invasion – Chapter 9 – Surfing In The RSA

• by: Evan Mantzaris

It was a job that ought to be done despite his deep hatred of it. His principles and beliefs were that when you violate one’s privacy, above all, you violate yourself.  Now next to his carefully installed VODAFONE Internet device, he felt violated no end. A job had to be done; the fact that he did it because of need and not want  was merely a footnote of History, if that.

He googled the name “HU FONG”, just to start, before he moved to more sophisticated improvisations. The first item “ HU FONG SHIPMENTS” . The second HU FONG Heavy Machinery PTY. Ltd, Haihu Ayuan No 285.1, Du Dong Da Dao , Shanghai , 2001 29. Interesting. He felt that space annulled his memory, his history, his past and he was afraid to look at his future. He moved the mouse. He read:
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– And I thought I gave a new spin in Native Intelligence, he thought. These guys made it so simple for the competitors, they even avail to the enemy their suppliers name and addresses, but who could guarantee that they would provide the correct information?

He remembered when he first read the full text of Michael Porter’s “COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE” for his Marketing IA class. He smiled and moved on.

He moved to the next item
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His sorrow was annulled .His humanity was annulled together with his dignity, his knowledge, space became a gigantic “elsewhere”, a new consciousness of the mind and body , most time searching for facts and creating new ones, mostly imaginary. Read more

The Ndundulu Invasion – Chapter 10 – Born To Be Wild

• by: Evan Mantzaris

He was driving lazily. Thandiswa’s CD blaring in the car, the young girl singing alongside.
The traffic was bearable. Driving on the left lane gave to opportunity to the girl to absorb the peace of the surroundings, far away from the ENGEN refinery and the noise of the second hand MERCEDES passing as brand new one.
They were silent, only this Godly voice mixing with the few fumes from the sugar mills here and there. He did not even bother to check his rear view mirrors, there was no hurry, they were booked at the BB. His cell phone was off.

He did not even notice the bright red YARIS that passed him. Only the girl felt a little shaken, because her body felt like frozen for a few second.
“He was fast Daddy”, she whispered.
“Ah, you know young people, they drive fast, but we are not in a hurry, are we?”
“No”, she replied and moved her body closer to him, almost falling asleep. Read more

The Ndundulu Invasion – Chapter 11 – Room To Move

• by: Evan Mantzaris

This time around the meeting place of the conspirators was the three star hotel in Empangeni. Bongi was still fresh on the job, but getting tired fast. On the other hand Gapon seemed to carry on a highly professional mould, with the exception of drinking of course.
Bongi noticed that the more they met, the more his handler consumed more by the day. Not that he worried, because it was becoming more evident by the day that Gapon was a consummate drinker. However the fact that Gapon insisted to drive back to Durban after the completion of each meeting worried Bongi. Occasionally Bongi felt that a pep talk regarding drinking and driving would help, but knowing his friend’s demeanour he avoided even mentioning his observation.

Gapon was a mature man after all, and knowing his aggressiveness, Bongi realised that even such an attempt was doomed to lead to confrontation. He smiled when he recalled the didactic outbursts of the handler when mentioning the Agency’s Code of Ethics that demanded a clean living devoid of excesses in regard to drinking and womanising as the security of the country was the paramount imperative of the service. In his state of drunkenness, Gapon sounded lyrical about the agent’s commitment to the country, their duties and responsibilities in protecting the people from the internal and external enemy and all the big words that fill the Green and White Papers and the Service Delivery Outcomes Manuals. In fact sometimes Bongi felt the urge to start taking notes recording these outbursts, but he avoided it because of the fear Gapon he would get offended. Bongi was sure that he would have felt offended. Read more

The Ndundulu Invasion – Chapter 12 – The Letter

• by: Evan Mantzaris

Gapon did not even have time to look around him. He locked himself into the small study room next to the double garage and he continued changing the length and tone of the letter. Initially he felt it should be long and detailed. He took out his notebook and went through it line by line, word by word. Then he categorised the themes and content and retyped carefully.

Before he completed the fourth version he went out in the yard to have his sixth cigarette. He planned to spend his Saturday in the swimming pool as ORLANDO PIRATES had a bye and he could not stand watching MPUMALANGA BLACK ACES versus AMAZULU. Sometimes he questioned uMsholozi’s confessed undying support for AMAZULU but as the Professor turned informer had told him everything in life is a personal choice and the result of history. Bongi had a point on this one.

As he entered the study he posed for thirty seconds, re-looked at the two page document and tore it apart. He threw it on the floor, but saved it under “CONFIDENTIAL’ in his laptop, just in case. He decided to confuse the Chief with some heavy intellectual jargon.
It took him half an hour to complete the draft. He looked at it and felt proud of himself. He thought the final product was a gem. He read it out loudly:

Durban DATE (to be completed in time)
RE: NDUNDULU INVASION

Dear Comrade Chief
Please accept my humble revolutionary greetings to you and Comrade Mrs. Nomzamo.
I wish to report to you re: the invasion reported to you by Comrade Informer X 24623 QUATRO on 16/8/2009 at 15.30.
I wish to report that a diligent newly recruited Agent, No Z 24624 MFUND has reported the following on 16-10-2009 at 4.15 am.
The Chinese Enemy is not strong enough, yet, to come on openly against the third and final stage of our uninterrupted revolutionary process. Read more

The Ndundulu Invasion – Chapter 13 – Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These

• by: Evan Mantzaris

Bongi walked towards the Notice Board hanging from the tree outside the Clinic. He greeted the gogos (grand mothers) selling bananas and bought three for lunch. He joined the queue. After ten minutes his turn was on to browse through the notice. He knew it would be very inappropriate to jump the queue of all sorts of interested people. He took out his note-book before he carefully scrutinized the contents of the Notice

NOTICE NO 121/2009

“Do you want to start your own business but don’t know how or where to begin? Well, help is at hand.

An exciting new project, “Asisebenze”, has been launched by the uThungulu District Municipality in partnership with the Zululand Chamber of Business. From May 2009, business advisers will be visiting each of the six local municipalities in the uThungulu District on an on -going basis until the end of the year and three months into 2010. 

Free of charge, they will offer advice on:

• starting a business
• how to access entrepreneurial training
• how to set up agricultural co-operatives
• how to submit tenders
• project management
• business research
• business reporting

No appointments necessary

The business advisors will be available as follows.

Ufuna ukuqala umsebenzi othi wena kodwa awazi uzoqalaphi? Usizo lusentendeni yesandla. Read more

The Ndundulu Invasion – Chapter 14 – When I Was Young

• by: Evan Mantzaris

When Gapon entered the room Bongi felt the tension. His handler was always in a rush for answers and activities and he was always meticulous in his questions, monitoring and assessment routine. This was one of the things that Bongi could not argue against.
Gapon was thorough in his job and followed the Manuals to their finer detail. The problem that Bongi found in this type of approach was that the handler did not go deep enough, and this was one of the issues he felt obliged to raise with Gapon. However, he was reluctant to do that because he knew there will be a backlash, and this was the last thing he needed in his life, that was very complicated at the moment, to say the least. If he raised issues of detail, he was sure Gapon would go into a tirade bordering on the hysterical, accusatory and authority-laden attitude that had become his trademark in their conversations .This was the reason Bongi felt that he should have used more strategic and pious attitude in the feed back sessions.

Tonight Gapon seemed to be bothered about something that troubled him greatly and after he pulled the bottle and stashed it in the mini-bar without opening it, he sat on his usual place in the couch. He did not pose for a minute as he seemed absorbed in looking at the painting on the wall. Read more