From a former premier to one of our smartest finance ministers (no, not you, Mr Gigaba), one of the biggest Zupta whistleblowers to our current prez's former mouthpiece, a smattering of red berets and even Helen Zille's former blue-eyed girl - the political who's who showed up in their throngs on Thursday for a powerful night with one of our nation's greatest sons.
Titled In Conversation With Thabo Mbeki, the event was the Power98.7 live broadcast at the plush Inanda Club in Johannesburg where our former president threw a healthy dose of shade ("You can't pick up a factory and run away, maybe a briefcase of cash and take it to Dubai or something ..."). He also pointed out there's no ill feelings for Julius Malema.
You'll probably know that the interview was conducted by station boss Given Mkhari (and the jury's out as to whether the MSG Afrika Investment Holdings CEO asked enough of the right questions when not interrupting our second democratically elected head), and you won't be surprised that there was hardly a Gupta, let alone a current cabinet minister, in sight.So who did pitch?
Breezing through the metal detector, the first person I spot is the tall former Gauteng premier, Mbhazima Shilowa, with his wife, the always-friendly Wendy Luhabe.
I ask the ex-premier if he still has a few Shilowa rosebushes in the garden, remembering how Wendy had a certain tangerine and blush flower named after him for his 50th birthday. "Of course! Many!" he replies.
Only a few metres away is that former Zille protégé, Lindiwe Mazibuko, who famously gave up her DA post for Harvard and who tells me she spends her time these days "ping-pong[ing] between here and Cape Town ... and abroad ..."
Lindiwe keeps her cards close to her chest, not willing to divulge what she's up to these days, saying only the scant info is "deliberate".
I move on to South Africa's No1 social scene regular, Basetsana Kumalo, who is catching up with that ex-Zuma mouthpiece I mentioned, the very dapper Zizi Kodwa, who is wearing a spiffy navy suit, his signature specs and an ANC lapel badge.
You'd expect Zizi to feel like a fish out of water in the room, but the now ANC national spokesman was clearly relishing the crowd, later on sharing a few laughs with ex-comrade Juju.
Hunger games
Elsewhere I say hello to Maria Ramos (wife of that finance minister I mentioned, the unflappable Trevor Manuel) who must have missed lunch at the Absa HQ where she is CEO as she made a beeline for the lavish food station.I greet a few broadcasters like Ursula Chikane and Iman Rappetti (who many on Twitter felt would have been a more adept interviewer) and then it's inside the auditorium to listen to Mr Mbeki.
It is there I see that Zupta whistleblower, the former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas (now better known as Mkhulu Bae), and next to him is a man who, like Juju, must be wondering what might have been: former Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi.
And the man of the hour?
Mr Mbeki looked a little bemused by all the attention as he walked into the room, and gave me a warm and welcoming handshake when I went up to introduce myself.
And while all eyes were on him, I can tell you that his fairer half, Zanele, can still teach the latest crop of politico wives a thing or two in the sartorial stakes: Mrs Mbeki was undoubtedly most stylish on the night in a striking brown and black houndstooth-patterned two-piece...