Beat it!

[Danone]( [Mail & Guardian Newsletter logo](#) [mg.co.za]( [The Ampersand Daily Newsletter from the M&G team](#) [Divider Strip] October 08 2020 | [View in browser]( [Divider Strip] [Facebook icon]( [Twitter icon]( [Instagram icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( Hi there, If you were paying attention you may have noticed a new piece of furniture added recently to the Mail & Guardian: Q&A Sessions. Each week, one of us sits down with someone interesting for an open chat. We've spoken to people from all walks of life, including presidential adviser [Trudi Makhaya]( environmental activist [Desmond D'Sa]( and Banyana Banyana coach [Desiree Ellis](. This week Athandiwe Saba sat down with auditor general [Kimi Makwetu](. Reaching the end of his seven-year term, Makwetu opens up in a manner that he rarely has before. Quizzed on why he has been reluctant to grant interviews in the past, he responded: "I have told my team that I do not want to be like Michael Jackson, to the point where every channel people turn to, there I am. Remember when that song came out, he was on every channel, singing bede bede [beat it, beat it]. I don't want to be that person. I would rather deliver my reports and go back into the shadows and do my work. There is a lot of it. That answer got us thinking. Magic is a team sport. It's one of the most deservedly legendary and recognisable guitar solos in pop history, and you'll know it, whether or not you're a fan. The story goes that Eddie van Halen was compensated for his work with a case of beer and the promise of dance lessons. Van Halen was a surprise guest on [Beat It]( the third single on Michael Jackson's Thriller. His solo lasted all of 20 seconds and took half an hour to record. According to a 2012 CNN interview, he did it as [a favour to producer Quincy Jones]( while the rest of his Van Halen bandmates were out of town. "I said to myself, 'Who is going to know that I played on this kid's record, right? Nobody's going to find out.' Wrong!" he said. "Big-time wrong. It ended up being record of the year." Another lesser-known fact about Van Halen's input to that song, is how he rearranged the song, despite knowing how precious Jackson was about having his stuff fiddled with. What we have now is a musical firework display because two people dedicated to their craft got together. "I didn't know how he would react to what I was doing. So I warned him before he listened. I said, 'Look, I changed the middle section of your song,'" Van Halen said. "Now in my mind, he's either going to have his bodyguards kick me out for butchering his song, or he's going to like it. And so he gave it a listen, and he turned to me and went, 'Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze a solo, but to actually care about the song, and make it better.'" Team work makes the dream work. In South Africa, we tend to believe it's someone else's job to stop or call out wrongdoing. We are all a part of a culture that lets corruption slide because it's someone else's issue. As Eusebius McKaiser points out, [complacency is worse than graft](. Let's heed his call to keep on holding the powerful to account, and guard against becoming jaded. Cheers, Kiri Rupiah & Luke Feltham [Divider Strip] [MG public servants]( [Divider Strip] [Rectron]( [Divider Strip] [Facebook icon]( [Twitter icon]( [Instagram icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( You are receiving this email on {EMAIL} because 1.) You're a member of "Mail & Guardian" or 2.) previously subscribed [M&G logo] 25 Owl St, Braamfontein Werf, Johannesburg, 2092 Want to be removed? No problem! [UNSUBSCRIBE]( Email support: help@media-connect.co.za - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -