Posted inNews/Politics

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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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 […]