Anger has been growing about the taxpayers' money spent (many would say "misspent") on the private residence of President Jacob Zuma - as revealed by public protector Thuli Madonsela's provisional report.
No surprise then that top-ranking officials stood up yesterday to try to justify the splurge on some of the heavily publicised luxuries at Nkandla.
And it is no surprise that this happened little more than a week after Zuma was booed at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela.
Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi and national police commissioner Riah Phiyega put up a defence that sounded like a comedy skit devised for Monty Python.
What we thought was an amphitheatre is apparently not an amphitheatre, just an elaborate retaining wall. What looks for all the world like a swimming pool turns out to be a fire-fighting reservoir essential to a complex of thatched buildings. The tuckshop is indeed a tuckshop, but the facility predates Zuma's inauguration and simply had to be rebuilt in a new position to avoid people from the nearby community having to enter a national key point to do their shopping.
The list goes on. Boo.
The Proteas playing India at The Wanderers yesterday had less spin than that.
Phiyega and Nxesi hold important positions in South Africa and it is embarrassing that they can stand up in public and peddle such rubbish.
If the security ministers are trying to pre-empt Madonsela's full report, due to be released early next year, they should really have made a better effort.
If it was all in jest, well done! A great start to the Silly Season.
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