The late Amichand Rajbansi’s “stolen” wig, and a R1.66 petrol price hike made fools of some catching up on news.
|||Last year it was barn swallows bringing aircraft at Durban’s King Shaka international airport to a standstill, this year it was the late Amichand Rajbansi’s “stolen” wig; hot-cross buns with the Star of David on them; and Richard Branson’s journey to the centre of the earth with Tom Hanks that made fools of newspaper readers.
And while East Coast Radio managed to get locals in a froth over a trumped-up R1.66 petrol price hike, other than that April Fool’s day passed seemingly with little to laugh about in KZN.
The real 66 cents petrol hike, increases in the eThekwini Municipality’s rates, water and electricity tariffs, and headline-grabbing political shenanigans seemed to have squeezed out space for tomfoolery in the print media.
The Tribune story on the theft of the late Minority Front leader’s wig was called “insensitive” and slated for leaving a bad taste, while Branson’s gag, ho-hum, managed only to raise a small yawn.
However, the City Press’s “anouncement” that the Star of David and the crescent moon would appear on all hot-cross buns sold by Woolworths was sure to add fuel to the fire of a heated debate by “hot cross Christians”, whose call for a boycott of the supermarket chain has gone viral.
Meanwhile, in a spoof statement issued on Thursday, the European Council announced it was calling another euro-zone summit to resolve the debt crisis to be held on April 1.
“The presence of His Holiness the pope affords an opportunity to pray for divine intervention to save the euro,” it said.
“This is now seen as the most credible strategy.” - The Mercury