William Saunderson-Meyer

Unlike the useless drones that now overwhelmingly make up the ANC benches in the House, that first Parliament was blessed with an array of committed, capable people, who genuinely believed that they were there to serve the people.

Selebi may be just a sideshow. No one knows how deep and far the corruption in SAPS’ top hierarchy extends.

The only looming threat is how long an ANC that perceives itself to be the only legitimate political entity on these shores will tolerate the DA determinedly nibbling away at a vote that the ANC proclaims as its sole preserve.

As is the case on many if not most boards – both in the commercial and public sectors – the SAA directors were supine sycophants, applauding admiringly from the sidelines the egotistical jigs of the chief executiv

Predictably, the media is reacting to these recent ANC threats like a scalded cat instead of with the yawn that all this deserves. For whatever the control fetish of the ANC, government actually has little room for manoeuvre.

Government ministers had to exercise managerial oversight during the World Cup because they, in turn, for the first time were being held accountable. Not by a vacillating president or an endlessly forgiving electorate, but by the mandarins of Fifa and a demanding tourism market.

It is difficult to feel that sorry for the Democratic Alliance over the toilet wars – in which it has been smeared as indifferent to black dignity – because it walked doe-eyed into an entirely predictable political ambush.

Mbeki, the prophesier of the African Renaissance, always preferred the world stage to local footlights and will likely be more deeply wounded by the lack of international acknowledgment for his achievements.

After more than a decade of denial over SA’s eye-popping incidence of crime, the ANC under its new president, Jacob Zuma, decided to smother the problem with a blanket of blue serge. It simultaneously slipped the leash of civilian oversight of the police.

Robust democracies don’t exist because there is no conflict. They exist because they have mechanisms for channelling conflict in ways that relieve pressure.