A widely touted election scenario is that the African National Congress sees its majority slashed. Waking from its walk on the dark side, the party attributes the erosion of voter trust to President Jacob Zuma’s failings and ousts him as leader. Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa takes the reins and South Africa sighs with relief. It’s […]
William Saunderson-Meyer
This Jaundiced Eye column appears in Weekend Argus, The Citizen, and Independent on Saturday. WSM is also a book reviewer for the Sunday Times and Business Day. Follow @TheJaundicedEye.
Posted inNews/Politics
Gauteng Nature Conservation makes a complete baboon of itself
Whether the law is an ass, as was asserted by Mr Bumble in Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist, remains a matter of eternal debate. But as a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) highlights in a judgment last week, sometimes those who act in the law’s name, make complete baboons of themselves. […]
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Time for the SANDF to slim down and shape up
It’s not a national secret that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is in serious trouble. Its barracks are unfit for human habitation, it has been haemorrhaging expertise and its soldiers teetered on the brink of mutiny in a protest march on the Union Buildings So when the government’s leaked long-term military strategy review […]
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Zuma’s gilded battlements besieged by the public protector
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s long delayed report into the expenditure of at least R246-million of taxpayer money on President Jacob Zuma’s rural home at Nkandla is undoubtedly the non-fiction must-read of the year. And equally, were they to be collected into a single volume, the tripartite alliance’s attack dogs’ ongoing attempts at discrediting the report […]
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One nation, united, in search of a verdict
This is South Africa at its very best. One nation, irrevocably divided, with liberty and justice for all who can afford it. No, I speak not of the general election campaign as the squabbling picks up steam. Although with all the bile being spewed, as politicians rubbish not only their opponents but also the demographic […]
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South Africa’s lawyers should be desperately ashamed
Last week the Johannesburg Bar Council (JBC) took a decision that should cause their colleagues in the organised attorneys’ profession to cringe with embarrassment and blush with shame. It opened to media scrutiny, for the first time, a disciplinary enquiry into one of its advocate members. In contrast, though I agree it seems scarcely credible […]
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Zille’s itchy Twitter finger dumps her in the poo
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille has caused quite a kerfuffle after her fight with a journalist on social media. Go, Zille! Zille’s supporters argue that since journalists dish it out with glee, we have to accept that in a robust democracy the price to be paid by the media is not to whine about getting […]
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Zuma’s muti leaves the opposition wilting
Not in two decades – not in 66 years, come to think of it – has South Africa’s Official Opposition had better prospects of landing the ruling party a bruising body blow. As things stand, however, it might well botch the opportunity. The African National Congress is, after all, in unparalleled disarray. It has squandered […]
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DA march on ANC HQ: A plague on both your houses
South African politicians are notoriously bad at accountability. It’s always someone else’s fault: usually that of their opponent. In most western democracies, however, politicians do still resign for reasons of accountability. This week the British Immigration minister, Mark Harper, bit the bullet because his Colombian cleaner turned out to be an illegal immigrant. Harper could […]
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DA old boys determined to learn wrong lesson from Agang debacle
It was perhaps inevitable of a relationship that was sealed in public with a lip-puckering smooch, only to collapse within days in recriminations. Political commentators have trotted out every sweaty-palmed sexual and relationship cliché found in the English language, then flogged them mercilessly. Among the bromides there’s been “marry at haste, repent at leisure” (not […]
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Magical thinking is behind the gloom over SA’s Constitution
Despite the evidence to the contrary – 20 years of successfully protected freedoms – it has becoming increasingly fashionable to badmouth the South African Constitution. Sceptics range across the political spectrum, from radicals, who want the state to be unconstrained, to liberals who claim that the Constitution has effectively already been negated by the state. […]
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Election ecstasy: Old foes kiss and make up
Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Julius Malema. Helen Zille and Jacob Zuma. When traditional foes start making nice towards one another or echoing one another’s opinions, it’s clearly the end of the world as we know it. Or else, it’s a general election year and they’re scrambling to ingratiate themselves with voters. Inkatha Freedom Party leader Buthelezi […]