By Abiye Teklemariam and Janice Winter Popular revolutions do not generally end with protesters storming presidential palaces. Success is most often achieved by their ability to breach the unity of the regime’s power base. Such divisions manifest in several ways: reluctance of the armed forces to take action against protesters, regime moderates distancing themselves from […]
Janice Winter
Janice Winter is programme manager of the Axess Programme on Journalism and Democracy. She has an M.Phil. in International Development from the University of Oxford, receiving a distinction for research on victims of political violence in Zimbabwe. She writes here on media, politics and democracy.
Posted inNews/Politics
Counter-evolutionaries
I like Zapiro. I like that his cartoons are irreverent, provocative, incisive, humorous and hyperbolic; that no matter how ostensibly offensive, they are almost always perfectly on point. And I like that they piss powerful people off. But not this week. A first for me, I find Friday’s M&G cartoon disappointing, its message inaccurate and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Do we really believe in diversity?
I’m not so sure we do. As South Africans we’re great at asserting our unity as “a people”, by quoting Tutu, Mandela and even Mbeki (though not Zuma — not yet, anyway) about rainbows or renaissances, and we’re especially good at performing our proudly South African brand of “unity through diversity” — just look at […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Supporting (limits to) media freedom
Zuma has received his award as Newsmaker of the Year for 2009. Not surprising, given last year’s events: a mixed bag, with the withdrawal of corruption charges, his election to the presidency, the launch of the presidential hotline and controversial appointments of a new chief justice, national director of public prosecutions and national police commissioner, […]
Posted inGeneral
Black economic extortion, Malema style
If we had a national genie, my three requests to her would be: To make us a country rich in the resource of leadership defined by wisdom, vision and integrity; To make us a forward-looking nation, while never forgetting our past; and To enact sufficient social and economic justice to foster a genuine sense of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The state of the state
If the state is judging the state of the nation, then it’s up to the nation to judge the state of the state The shower head is back: and this time it’s super-sized. I’ll be interested to see its proportions and position after yesterday’s State of the Nation Address. Last night President Zuma was in […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Father of the nation? In that case, the personal is public, Dad
Our president has just admitted to having fathered his 20th child — this time, not the child of any of his five wives, but of a friend’s daughter. No, not the friend’s daughter by whom he was accused of rape. Another friend’s daughter. This time he scored with the daughter of Soccer World Cup local […]