The rest of the day Thabisa couldn’t concentrate. She had returned to the office and found Tamara there, giggling her annoying laugh and making stupid jokes with the clients. Thabisa wanted to walk up to her and tell her: ‘I know!’

But what good would that do?

Even with the designer dress that was unmistakably one of a kind marking her, Tamara could worm her way out of anything; she was a sly fox. The more she giggled the more Thabisa felt annoyed and wanted to punch her in the face.

“What do you want?” Tamara asked Thabisa.

Thabisa hadn’t realised that she was standing in front of Tamara with an if-looks-could-kill expression on her face.

“I saw you. I know what you did. And you won’t get away with it,” Thabisa said before she could stop herself.

“What? What’re you on about?”

Ntando opened his office door and saved Tamara.

“Thabisa, you’re back. Good, please come here.”

Thabisa stood glaring at Tamara, the look telling her that this wasn’t over. Then she walked to her desk to put down her bag.

“You’re such a freak. Loser!” Tamara said as Thabisa opened Ntando’s door.

That girl had such a nerve. But Thabisa needed to focus right now. The last thing she needed was Ntando thinking she was unstable at the first challenge she faced.

“Ntando, I’m leaving now. See you tomorrow,” Tamara called from the door.

They were so into the ad thing that they hadn’t noticed the time. It was 4:30 already and they were lost in their design.

“You should get going then,” Ntando said looking at the time.

“It’s fine. I’ve got no cats waiting for me at home,” Thabisa said, not really wanting to go. “Besides, we shouldn’t break momentum. Unless you have plans, in which case, you can go.”

“No, no. No plans,” Ntando smiled at her.

Then his Facebook alerted him to something. He checked quickly. He had ‘liked’ Tamara’s photo of her dress and she had tagged him in one of her comments:

Compliments of Mr Ntando Ramabula.

“It is a beautiful dress; it looks good on her,” Thabisa said, trying to mask the bitterness in her voice.

Ntando didn’t answer for a while. “You know, if you get your license first the job will be yours. It was made for you,” he smiled at her.

“Some things are just not meant for us.” Thabisa avoided his eyes.

“Look, I know Tamara is a bit much. But her ways are good for my business. She’s not hurting anyone. I can’t fire her for flirting her way to the top. It’s not against the law,” he said, walking around the table and sitting down. “You need to be a little more… assertive. You know this job is for you, so why let it slip away?”

“Maybe I should be heading home tonight,” Thabisa said. She had a lot on her mind and now this talk was depressing and confusing her. “I’ll take these home and bring them back tomorrow.”

“No, we’ll do them together here another time,” he said smiling. “I like working with you. Enjoy your evening.”

She went home – even though her heart was telling her to stay. But she needed to decide about this Tamara issue. Tamara couldn’t get away with it; she couldn’t get away with stealing this job. No, Thabisa would fight.

But how?

There was one great source of information; the internet. Facebook. She logged on and posted a status.

What do you do when the world favours the lazy and corrupt?

Before she got off the train the comments were lining up.

You take a stand and report it!

If you don’t speak up then you’re no better than them all!

Gal, then you get lazy and corrupt too 😉

The whole world is lazy and corrupt. Look at our government.

Blow the whistle! Corruption Watch

They are corrupt too. Who can you trust?

If you ain’t got money, you’ll never get anywhere – rich get richer!

A little faith in the system would surprise you.

That was it: Corruption Watch.

She quickly Googled ‘Corruption Watch’, and there was their site as the first link. After reading some guidelines on how to report a case of corruption, Thabisa decided she would do it anonymously and let the law take its course.

There was no link to add the video she had taken, so she decided to ‘like’ them on Facebook. She inboxed them the video and said she would like to stay anonymous.

If this was meant to be, then it would be.

* * * * *

The next morning she went to work as usual. Fridays were meant to be short and she was looking forward to working with Ntando again. Tamara was out of her hands; she had done what she thought was right and there was nothing more she could do.

She had just finished making herself a cup of coffee and it was a bit early for Tamara or Ntando to be in, so she did what she did best in the mornings: watched the Wendy Williams show on YouTube. Wendy was real and made her feel good. She talked about real issues.

Then her phone rang. It was Ntando. “Hello?” she answered.

“Is Tamara there?” Ntando asked without even a ‘hello’.

“Ahh, no. She comes in at 7:45. Why?”

“I’m on my way,” he said and hung up.

What was going on? Why was Ntando suddenly wanting Tamara so early? She checked her Facebook and there it was:

Viral Video of the Day! Corruption Exposed!

She had liked Corruption Watch’s Facebook page so she got their newsfeeds. And that meant all her friends saw what she saw too. And one of her friends on Facebook was Ntando.

He must’ve seen the video and recognised the dress; the one-of-a-kind that he gave toTamara. Her face wasn’t shown but Corruption Watch knew which centre this had taken place, thanks to their anonymous tip-off.

Some people who were common friends were already commenting on it!

Dumb b*$%ch

Sies!

Ntando arrived at 7:30 and looked around the office. He was angry. Thabisa had never seen him so angry. He was livid.

“As soon as Tamara comes in, send her to me.”

Then he went in to his office and banged the door behind him. He knew. Ntando had seen the video. Tamara was busted.

She walked in bouncing and happy, giggling her annoying laugh. But Thabisa wasn’t annoyed today. She smiled at Tamara and even greeted her.

“Good morning Tamara. Ntando would like to see you.”

Tamara went in and shut the door. Within a minute there was shouting and arguing. Tamara crying and begging, saying sorry over and over again. Ntando yelling for her to go and never come back.

“And don’t use me as a reference wherever you’re going!” he said, and slammed the door behind her.

Thabisa said nothing. She sat at her desk and smiled. She smiled but she felt bad. Watching Tamara crying uncontrollably was not nice. But she couldn’t help but smile. Ntando only came out of his office at lunch time.

“I’m starving. Wanna grab something to eat?”

“Who will run the office?” Thabisa smiled.

“I’m sure it’ll stand still till we get back and find someone permanent to do that,” Ntando smiled, showing his perfect teeth and holding the door open for Thabisa.

In the car she knew she had to ask. “So what will happen to Tamara now?”

“I don’t know. The video doesn’t show her face but I know it’s her. So maybe the cops will do their jobs and arrest the official. They know where he works.”

“Yeah, there’s hope in our system yet,” she said and smiled.

The End

* * *

Tell us: What do you think is the biggest cause of corruption? How would you go about reducing corruption in our society?