I CANNOT believe Ministry of Information and Media Permanent Secretary Thabo Kawana has invited me to observe his dialysis session. I arrive at the University Teaching Hospital and I am led to the room where he is lying on a hospital bed, connected to a dialysis machine. I notice, however, that the tubes from the machine are not connected to his body through his arm as it is in most cases, rather, they are connected through his chest. I think he notices that I am stunned and starting to get a little scared, so he breaks the silence in his usual jovial fashion and explains to me that what he has is a permanent catheter because he has stage five...