Watch out for the ghost in your mail

Eddie Botha's
BUSINESS BREAKFAST

I HAVE another story of a living ghost amidst us. Do you remember Craig Shergold, the 9-year-old British boy who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, the boy who asked you so nicely to send business cards to him in Surrey so he could fulfil his hopes of landing in the Guinness Book of Records?

As a result of a column in which I questioned the authenticity of the appeal, I received an email message from Dr Kathy Lang, a partner of Mayflower Computing Consultants in the UK.

Lang put me onto a number of websites which explain why and how prominent (and, I dare say, busy) business people have been conned into dictating endless chainletters to colleagues and friends, while Shergold, now a healthy 21-year-old, has expressed a new wish -- for the cards to stop coming.

Shergold's story has now become part of urban legends and folklore. Yes, there was a Craig Shergold and he was really very ill.

And the chain letter appeal netted over 16 million cards in less than a year, and Craig Shergold won the title.

The Shergold phenomenon caught the attention of a wealthy American philanthropist, who arranged for Craig to receive brain surgery.

Most of the malignant tumour was removed, and his cancer went into remission.

But as one website reports, the cards have kept on arriving to this day -- a total of over 250million at last estimate.

The Shergolds (or people with various versions of their name) have been begging for the past five years for the torrent of misplaced sympathy to stop.

According to Kathy Lang, there are probably about three or four websites that have covered Craig's road to stardom.

But apparently the urgent appeal for people (anyone with a business card qualifies I assume) to send cards and to circulate the chain letter among friends and associates is doing the rounds again like a Mexican wave, notes one website.

Another site notes: "The chain letter business is proving difficult to phase out, in spite of the fact that the original patient is now recovered, grown-up and has moved to a new address.

"The Guinness Book of Records has discontinued the 'mass mailing' category and the young man's parents have repeatedly appealed for people to stop sending letters, compliment slips, business cards etc."

So stop wasting your secretary's time dictating those sentimental letters. Craig Shergold is alive and well ... and living as far away from a post office as possible.

No open time

A CLEVER colleague of mine calculated, based on recent figures, that South Africa spends R15billion a year on cellphones.

Conservatively it means that approximately R100m is spent monthly in the Eastern Cape.

This is big bucks for cellphone licence holders MTN and Vodacom.

That explains their generosity when it comes to free or discounted phones or car kits.

But are they so generous? Did you for instance know that the phone you buy is either an open or a locked phone.

A locked phone means that your new Sim card will not work on your existing phone if you decide to change from MTN to Vodacom or vice versa unless it is unlocked by your old company.

And to have your phone unlocked will cost you R500.

Why? Because locked phones are normally subsidised phones. They are the ones that you get for free or at a discount.

You could of course ask for an open phone, which will accept any Sim card, but there will probably not be a discount on the phone ... or it will be an older or weaker model.

Smile for the camera

WE (I for one) wanted a more visible traffic department and now we've got it.

Acting Senior Superintendent Graham Lategan, who is responsible for law enforcement, says the high visibility approach is aimed at eradicating lawlessness and the absolute disregard some drivers have for the law.

Despite being understaffed by about 70 members, the department has increased the issuing of summonses and arrests for speeding, drunken driving and other offenses.

Good!

KGB

I TOO was locked up this week. Luckily not by Lategan's officers.

It happened when I went to KPMG to interview Colin Gardner who is off to Moscow.

As a short cut I went through the open basement parking gate ... only for the gate to close as soon as I was on the inside. Not knowing the code for the access door which leads to the offices, I had to call Dispatch telephonist Renee Briel who had to phone KPMG to open the gate.

Thank goodness for cellphones ... the unlocked ones!

Rich feeling

GONUBIE financial adviser Andre Rheeder had a very lucky client ... and a very wealthy client.

In the latest assessment which he received, the tax man stated that the revenue service owed him R86851149991615 (I leave out the cents).

But before Rheeder's client could collect, he received a revised assessment. This time I have to include the cents ... the amount was for 0,93c.

Let them eat cake

IMAGINE Brakfontein trader Theo Moldenhauer's surprise when the driver of Albany Bakeries dumped 185 loaves of bread at his store. Imagine his further surprise when he found out that the bread was meant for the school feeding scheme.

It took Moldenhauer a week to convince Albany to remove the bread, which was by then stale.

Nobody wanted to take responsibility for the bread, he tells me.

Never mind the school kids who had to go without it.