Those of you who are stepping in right now need to understand a few things.

We’ve harped on for a very, very long time on the issue of people scheduling taxing meetings and/or work on Friday afternoons. If you’re not familiar with this particular gripe, stop what you’re doing right this very minute, and read these links. Go on. Off with you (here, and here).

Not satisfied with whinging, we decided to take the matter further. We drew up a petition, and we agitated for change on 2oceansvibe Radio. The response to the petition was phenomenal, with well over a thousand irate Capetonians venting their righteous ire and adding their signatures to the paper.

The idea was to take the petition to the mayor, who, I recalled, had invited me for tea some time ago.

Well, the Mayor wasn’t available.We were, for all intents and purposes, rejected.

So we took a few drastic steps. When government won’t listen, you do two things: go to the media, and get corporate backing. We’d met Jeff Arnett – the seventh master distiller of Jack Daniels Whiskey in the history of the distillery – some time ago when he was a guest on 2oceansvibe Radio, and so we knew about their company policy of kicking back on the first Friday of every month with a few bottles of charitably-given Jack. We asked Jeff if he could orchestrate Jack Daniel’s backing of 2oceansvibe’s campaign to get the workforce of Cape Town, and ultimately, South Africa, liberated from the lie that is work hours on Friday afternoons.

Call To Jeff Arnett by 2oceansvibe.com

Which brings us to today. We have a small announcement to make, so we’d very much appreciate your attention, please.

Jeff has pulled off a minor coup. In the space of one week, he’s bent the ear of the corporate powers that be at Jack Daniels. We’re partnering with JD to bring you Jack Fridays.

How does this benefit you, you ask? The answer is two-fold. First off, we’re highlighting the cause. We’re shedding the kind of light on this subject that it deserves. Ultimately, the long-term goal is to actually looking to getting legislation amended to realistically address the working habits of Capetonians, and South Africans in general, on a Friday afternoon.

(The economists among you will argue that the local market will be adversely affected by such changes. We beg to differ. If no productive work is being extracted from Friday afternoons in the de facto status quo, then the restructuring of work hours on a Friday afternoon would, in fact, save captains of industry a substantial quantity of money that would otherwise be squandered on work hours that return nothing for the investment of pay.)

On a lighter note, you – yes, you, the suffering labourer – can experience the true joys of a non-working Friday afternoon, courtesy of our allies, Jack Daniels.  You will experience the “Jack Friday”. Can you handle that? Read on before you answer that question.

Friday April 1 is the first of many Jack Fridays to come over the course of this year, and the next. What have we got up our sleeves first up? Nothing less that Table Mountain, that’s what. All you need to know for now is that we will, on your behalf, call your boss, and plead your case for why you should get the afternoon off, before swooping in with our extraction team, and spiriting you to the safety of leisure, comfortable clothing, the company of four of your best friends – all from the summit of Cape Town’s iconic landmark. It sounds quite nice, hey? It is.

Watch out for details of how you can win the inaugeral Jack Friday experience at the start of next week.

You in? We are.

Boom.