Go Well Sinkala
By Dickson Jere
We reached a compromise with him. For him to continue featuring on the State House list of comedians for state functions, he was not stop making any jokes on the President.
“Agreed ma bwana,” he said to me and chief of protocol Bob Samakai.
His past jokes about the head of state was not well taken by the system even though the President himself did not bother about it. He was crossing the line.
So, we invited Brighton Sinkala to perform during the state visit of the South African President Jacob Zuma in 2010. In the midst of the state banquet, Sinkala picked on President Zuma.
“Me and President Zuma have two heads…,” he quipped.
The audience, especially the South African delegation, was in awe!
“We need to two painkillers for each head when we have headache,” he continued as we all looked totally embarrassed.
The audience only partially laughed when President Zuma, after a few minutes, burst out laughing. He helped calm the nerves even though it was an embarrassing encounter.
After the event, we called Sinkala for bollocking.
“But sir, you said I should not make any jokes about the President,” he defended himself.
“You didn’t say that the instructions also involved a foreign President,” he answered us while looking surprised at our position.
That was Brighton Sinkala who graced most events at State House together with Ovas Kaundula while Diffikoti was assigned to the MMD party functions. We had a good team!