Just yesterday I happened to listen to a podcast (yeah, I’m an adult) where something called the Dunning-Kruger effect was discussed.

Why is this relevant to Fikile Mbalula, you ask? Here’s how that effect is defined:

[It] is a cognitive bias in which relatively unskilled persons suffer illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability to be much higher than it really is.

Is it making a little more sense now? Thought so.

Rebecca Davis sat down with the Minister of Sport and Recreation for a new Mail & Guardian interview, which can now be read in full over at PressReader.

Here’s the main image and headline M&G have chosen:

Now just to be clear on one thing before you get your cage well and truly rattled – criticism of Fikile does not stem from his decision to ban certain sports from bidding for tournaments, but rather from a lengthy list of denials and half-truths that show scant regard for proof or evidence.

That, and the belief that the wool can so easily be pulled over the eyes of a public wisening up to the dirty dealings that go on behind the scenes.

How about the whole 2010 World Cup bidding fiasco for a start (HERE)? Then try the Cricket World Cup semi-final selection debacle (HERE).

Moving onto the latest interview – let’s run through some of the tastier bits:

“When I came to sports [ministry], people said that this is the ministry where there are no headaches,” he says. “All that you do is just come to the office [and] enjoy the party of attending events, because it’s always a party in sports, every day … And in terms of my road map, I redefined that. I said it’s not only [about] the party”…

Ironic considering how festive his Twitter account paints the job as. About that Twitter hack then?

He claimed that his account had been hacked. If so, by whom? “Well, I don’t know,” Mbalula replies. “You know, people are very sophisticated. I raised this thing with the minister of state security. He’s not come back to me about it, so I’m still waiting for the report in that regard.”

Let’s roll onto that bit about his high regard for himself:

He says he taught himself how to play golf in an extraordinarily short time. “I’m a genius when it comes to the sport of golf,” he says without a hint of modesty.

On rumours that he has always enjoyed the taste of whiskey:

The minister’s former predilection for whisky was laid bare in journalist Mandy Wiener’s 2011 book Killing Kebble.

There, she recorded the late Brett Kebble’s butler as saying: “Fikile was here often. He’d come here and in like an hour he’d finish a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue. Flat. Flat.”

If true, those days are behind him. “I like wine, red wine,” Mbalula says. “I used to drink whisky but it’s not good for me, so I don’t like it.”

And finally, on what the future holds:

…Mbalula harbours presidential aspirations.

He is coy on the topic when asked — “anything is possible in life,” he says — but immediately rattles off a list of world presidents elected at a similar age to his 44.

“I’m worried I will reach 50 before I am president,” he jokes. Or is he joking? With Mbalula, it’s sometimes hard to tell.

It’s all fun and games with Fikile, but point him in the direction of the presidency and you’ll find many South Africans struggling to crack a smile.

[source:pressreader]

[imagesource:ewn]