Politicians set their festive goals: eat, drink, learn to fight

A trip overseas, quality time with family, moving from one traditional ceremony to the next.

Like a lot of South Africans, that's exactly how many politicians will be spending their Christmas season.

After a year of running battles with her colleagues in the DA, which culminated in her forming a new party, the Good movement, Patricia de Lille plans to be dancing her 2018 blues away at Cape Town's V&A Waterfront on New Year's Eve.

"On New Year's Eve I always make it a point that I am somewhere where there is music. I can dance the whole night, I love dancing. I don't even wait for someone to come and dance with me, I go alone on the floor," she said.

Apart from an early morning round of golf, De Lille will also take part in family traditions.

"Christmas morning tradition in the family is we all drive out to the grave of my mother, my father and my baby sister. We put flowers on and again, I talk to my mother and father. I do believe they hear me," she said.

But there won't be much golf for the UDM's Bantu Holomisa - there is no course in his home village of Ngqamakhwe, in the Eastern Cape, where he will be.

"I love golf but there are no golf courses in Ngqamakhwe, so I will be driving to Mthatha or East London to play once in a while," Holomisa said.

And on Christmas Day, "the General" will be hosting his fellow villagers to feast at his house.

"I know that for Christmas I must budget for extra villagers," he said.

"They are going to come and I must prepare beers, brandy, whisky, meat and samp and beans. At least two sheep. You must always be flexible and ready; you can't not provide for them."

IFP MP Liezl van der Merwe is planning some charity work but is also looking forward to blowing off steam in remote Sutherland, in the Northern Cape. But the highlight of her festive season will be a trip to Thailand, where she will take lessons in muay Thai, the local form of boxing, which, she laughs, might come in handy in parliament.

"Every time there is a brawl in parliament, my seat is right there in between the EFF seats," she said.

"People are always coming, saying they want to rescue me, but I'm taking matters into my own hands."

The DA's Phumzile van Damme plans to explore the Western Cape, while catching up on African literature.

"I will be resting and taking care of myself, body and mind," she said. "I'm really looking forward to using my grandmother's recipe to make dombolo [dumplings]."