Bullard: Somebody wants to do that. I mean they want to do an Out to Lunch show. It’s like radio. I was asked to do a radio show as well. You’re tied down. I don’t want to be tied down. I don’t want to do [GARBLED] Jenny Crwys-Williams; being in the studio every lunch time to do a show between 1 and 4.
RP: Mmm.
Bullard: I mean I go away for four days on car launches because I can.
NVDL: Where do you go?
Bullard: Umm – where ever they go. Spain – a lot of overseas launches – Spain, America, UK…
NVDL: It’s a nice life hey?
Bullard: Well it sounds a nice life, but there are a lot of delays at airports and the security in Europe, and you go and drive a car on the wrong side of the road for a day or two. If Porsche is hosting it’s a fabulous life. You have a bloody good party that night, get very pissed, get up the next morning, drive a Porsche and then fly back, Business Class, in the afternoon.
RP: [Chuckles].
Bullard: But with three connections. So there’s an upside and a downside. You’ve still got to produce the words. But the problem is I couldn’t do that if I was doing a radio show or a television show. I couldn’t do any of this stuff; and I do a lot of MCing.
NVDL: But you could [do the stuff you do] after a few seasons.
Bullard: No. You could but… [Hesitates a moment] For example if I’ve got an evening show I can’t do any MCing. So somebody phones and says, ‘Will you MC an event,” I have to say I can’t, I have the evening show. So evening shows are way out. Can’t do that. Could record something. Possibly could record a few things and stack them up. And that might help. But on a regular live show it’s just…
NVDL: Then you don’t do it live you do it all prerecorded.
Bullard: Could do that.
RP: Yeah. And that way you’re not tied down.
Sponsor Wanted
Bullard: The thing with that – and it’s been as I say mooted a couple of times; and everyone says, the SABC says – ‘who is the sponsor Bring the sponsor?’ Because they’re not prepared to put up the money for it. So you go to them and say right: ‘It’s sponsored by Vodacom; here’s a large portion of money. Mr Bullard’s wardrobe by so and so; his hair by so and so. Dancing girls, full orchestra in the back and that’s great. And they then take all the advertising, because that’s the way they run the business. So if you’ve got a sponsor you can do it.
NVDL: Mmmm.
Bullard: We have one or two people looking… It’s a question of commitment, really. Unless someone’s got to, say, rack in a couple of million for production costs, then it’s not going to happen.
NVDL: We need – you know like you get Oprah in America – we need that sort of personality here.
RP: Yeah.
NVDL: And we’ve got Noleen [making a slight face].
RP: Exactly.
Bullard: Well it gets viewers. People like that sort of thing.
RP: But we need some talk show hosts that thinks in controversial aspects.
NVDL: I also think you express – like in your column – what you say is stuff that is quite urgent actually.
Bullard: Yes.
NVDL: And it’s almost like a form of leadership. And I think more people need to join that conversation. Because what’s happening is: a lot of what you’re saying is needed and people are thinking that, but they’re not expressing it.
Let's Talk About Leadership
Bullard: Couldn’t agree more. Because it is a sort’ve ‘zeitgeist’ – to use that overused word. Because a lot of people are saying: “Gee whiz, we read your column and it’s exactly what we discussed over dinner on Saturday night.” Well it’s very read what we’re going to be talking about this weekend. It’s going to be about Mbeki’s dishonesty. I mean my article this week is about Mbeki’s web of evil. And the editor is happy that it goes through, and I think it is a web of evil. But you know, your point is very well made.
It’s kind’ve like aging: I can go to the mirror in the morning and I can now see visible signs of aging. I can now see eyebrows have grown longer and a few more wrinkles. But I mean it’s happening gradually over time. If I look back at a photograph I can see what I was like. Now put that into the political perspective. We look back at a snapshot of South Africa five years ago and we’re very optimistic. Even two years ago. We’re now gradually losing our freedoms. And it’s not until we wake up with all those wrinkles…
NVDL: Yeah.
Bullard: …And we look in the mirror and say: we’re not allowed to say this. Some journalists – that newspaper disappeared, my mates are in prison.
RP: Yup.
Bullard: Or they’ve run out the country. The judges have all been bought off by the ruling party. They’ve gotten rid of anyone in the National Prosecuting Authority who doesn’t please Mbeki or his guys: bloody dangerous. And so you’re absolutely right-
NVDL: And it’s happening right now.
Wanted: Rallying Call
Bullard: You need a rallying call. Well absolutely right. And a lot of people are feeling helpless because business – apart from FNB, which I think was handled pretty badly-
NVDL: That was a shame.
Bullard: But you know Johan Rupert, in a conversation with me, I mean they were banned under the Nats, because they upset them and basically what the government did was hold back their import licenses for a year and starve the company of profits. And business is very aware of the strength of the politicians who can do whatever they like. Because there’s just no control. We actually need a new struggle. I’ve been reading the black columnists; and I hate to differentiate - they have to differentiate because they were part of the struggle, I wasn’t – reading their comments, and about their depression and Justice Malala particularly I think is very vocala and getting a lot of comment and I agree with pretty well everything he says. Um… You know you need some sort of reaction.
NVDL: Yeah. It’s actually an important thing we need. I’ve heard quite a few comments from black people saying – cautiously – that some things under the previous regime were actually better. There was less of this and less of that. Not to say we want to go back to that, but just to say how bad things are now. And to actually say that is like saying: Wow, things are shit. This can’t carry on. We’re actually going way beyond what’s unacceptable.
Bullard: Yeah that’s encouraging because people are recognizing that. On the other hand you go down to the rural areas where you have nothing, and I mean here the similarity is the tornado story last week.
Irrational Behaviour
People went home, and behaved irrationally, only because they didn’t have information to counter the irrational information they’d been given. The skies were dark; it was a tornado, get on the road, get in a traffic jam and behave stupidly. And then realize afterwards you’d been suckered. Now, put that into an election thing. Go to the rural areas and say:
“Jacob Zuma will save you. He will give you houses; he will give you cars," and you vote for him – because that’s what he said. Only afterwards you realize… I mean we all have this madness and delusion in crowds. And everyone is capable of being lead. And I think the government is working to do that very well. Where there is absolutely no counter-opinions. No opposition.
NVDL: Who would you suggest is a good leader [a possible presidential candidate]?
Watch this space to find out who David Bullard recommends to lead this country. To read the previous 2 or the following 2 transcripts, click on the label The Bullard Tapes below.
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