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Ex-SABC chair Ellen Tshabalala’s lesson for us all

Spanish philosopher George Santayana is best remembered for suggesting those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. An updated version might be: never do anything you could be ashamed of because there’s a public record online. It is a fact former chairperson of the SABC, Ellen Tshabalala, will discover to her cost in the years ahead.

No matter how much she transforms, how contrite or humble she may become, Tshabalala faces a difficult future. She will find prospective employers, potential business partners, even dinner party hosts suddenly turning away. Because in a few keystrokes she will be the woman who lied about qualifications she never had and tried to use courts to stop the truth being uncovered.

Ellen Tshabalala’s experience is a lesson to us all. The Americans say one’s reputation rises in an escalator but falls in an elevator. Nowadays, once that elevator drops, Google means there is little chance of recovery.

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