Just three days before the wedding, Thumba, who is now a retired judge, was issued with a banning order by the apartheid authorities. Why? Because as a dedicated freedom fighter, he dared to take a public stand against blatant racial discrimination, egregious inequalities and a system of unjust laws that rendered all people of colour in South Africa second class citizens in the land of their birth.

And to punish him - as well as hundreds of other courageous anti-apartheid comrades at the time - he was subjected to bannings; house arrest, was not allowed to leave Durban, attend social or political gatherings, or have more than one visitor at his home at any given time.

Apartheid's secret police, the Special Branch (SB), had one look at the couple's wedding invitation list and feared political stalwarts like JN Singh, Monty Naicker, Fatima Meer, Hassen Mall and Ismail Meer, who they branded as communists, were likely to attend. What did they fear - a violent regime change at the ceremony?

So Thumba was barred from attending his own wedding reception.

The SB later allowed him just one hour to attend the religious ceremony and then leave promptly, with Dolly remaining to take charge of the rest of the day's proceedings on her own. Thumba, who is now enjoying his retirement with Dolly at their home in uMhlanga, hopes the so-called "born-frees" across all communities in South Africa today will ensure we never go back to those bad old days.

He hopes telling the story about his extraordinary wedding experience will help young South Africans understand the rabid paranoia that prevailed among security police in the heydays of apartheid. Lest we forget.

Order, order!

Since I cannot afford watching pro wrestling on DStv's SmackDown series, I sometimes settle for live local Parliamentary debates for sheer escapism. And last week's rowdy and raucous exchanges in the much-vaunted budget debate in Cape Town provided all the frivolous entertainment my soul yearned for.

It was all there - the bitter accusations and scathing counter accusations, insults and personal innuendo, spurious points of order ( and disorder) and a chorus of angry complaints to the Speaker, Thoko Didiza, mainly from the ranks of the EFF and MKP, that they couldn't hear anything being said.

"It's too noisy," they protested.

Speaker Didiza tried to calm the waters by advising MPs to use their earphones, but as the saying goes, there are none so deaf as those who will not hear. As our teachers so often reminded us in class years ago, it's impossible to hear anything if everyone is speaking at the same time.

#ebrahim-rasool

Even if Trump does smell, don't tell him so

The Trump Administration expels South Africa’s ambassador to the United States