Time, The Gift of Kings

There are many things in life that you can judge a person's character by: how they treat cleaners, waiters, subordinates and whether they are late for appointments.

It's a slow news day here in Perth so I want to talk about the latter before telling you about an observation I have made between press conferences here and South Africa.

You see, keeping time and honouring it for that matter cuts at the very essence of who we are and at a subconscious level, gives a person on the outside a perspective on the way we view the world.

Arranging a meeting for 2pm and rocking up at 2.20pm says a lot. It tells a person that you do not value their time and at some level your time is superior.

I remember covering events attended by Zulu King, Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu back when I started my career in Durban where the King was notorious for arriving late by at least an hour of the scheduled starting time.

I once asked why this was so and was told that his subjects should always be at a venue before the King arrived and not the other way around.

It is one way the Zulu King exerts his authority on his subjects.

In other monarchies, time is a gift.

An old adage says that punctuality is the gift of kings.

Which brings me to press conferences.

In South Africa press conferences rarely started on time. It was one of those things we reporters came to expect. During one presser, then Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala Msimang once waited for a crew from the SABC to arrive before she began.

"African Time" was a phrase often thrown out when waiting. Another one, and my personal favourite was, "hurry up and wait".

In Perth it is the complete opposite. When the police/government/opposition set a time you better believe it is going to start then.

I am often amazed by their punctuality. Once (because I stupidly forgot my GPS at home and got terribly lost) I was late for a 2pm police presser. I got there at 2.06 and missed the entire first half and had I been five more minutes late I would have missed the entire thing.

This is by no means a whinge but a mere observation: It is truly refreshing that elected politicians and public servants ie police honour pre arranged time committments with the media because failing to do so is a snub to the people they serve - you.