UPINGTON. The conservative and predominantly white community of Lamtietie in South Africa’s Northern Cape province is in uproar this week after local prophet Jeremiah “Siener” Poggenpoel had a dream in which he claims to have seen the end of white rule in the country “as soon as 2010″.
Poggenpoel, who began having visions as a young boy after a mule he was trying to milk kicked him in the head, said he was still shaken by what he had seen.
“It was our Parliament, and it was full of black people,” he said. “Then one woman said ‘Madam, sweep here?’ and I was relieved because it seemed that maybe they were all just janitors; but then I heard her more clearly, and she was actually saying ‘Madam Speaker’.”
The townsfolk of Lamtietie have been clamouring for more information since the prophet’s revelation, but Poggenpoel says that he cannot “force the spirits to talk”. However he says that sometimes it helps to provide the spirits with a packet of Lucky Strikes, a garlic polony and a five-litre bottle of Late Harvest.
The small desert town hit the headlines after South Africa’s historic 1992 referendum, in which white citizens could cast a “yes” vote for a negotiated hand-over of power or a “no” vote for continued white rule. Lamtietie was the only municipality in the country to register a 100 percent “yes” vote, after its citizens misunderstood the question and thought they were voting on whether or not to deport South Africa’s black population to Madagascar.
Shopkeeper Drikkus Kettingsaag says his tills haven’t stopped ringing since “Siener” had his dream.
“Mostly people want Lucky Strikes and garlic polony,” he said, “but a lot of people are also stocking up on Vaseline and snuff, you know, things that the black people like. There’s a rumour that they might release Mandela some time next year, and when they do that, we’re going to need things that we can barter with the tribesmen in exchange for safe passage to Lesotho.”
Poggenpoel could not be reached for comment on the Mandela rumour, as he was busy talking to the spirits in a Late Harvest bottle in the shade of a tractor.
