The final report of Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the events at Marikana, released last week, has been widely lambasted in the press. Equally scathing about commission’s “failure to get justice” for the 34 miners killed by the SA Police Service, has been the social media commentariat. The amount of criticism directed at Judge Ian […]
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
ANC is transmogrifying into Zanu-PF
The Zanufication of the African National Congress proceeds apace. With every week that passes our governing party more closely resembles its Zanu-PF counterpart in Zimbabwe. In an apparently co-ordinated campaign, opponents are vilified and delegitimised. It seems that at best they are unwitting dupes of imperialist Western interests, lacking appropriate revolutionary consciousness as decreed by […]
Posted inNews/Politics
SA foreign policy hits a new low
The astonishing aspect to the diplomatic debacle involving Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is not that this genocidal maniac was allowed to leave South Africa. It was that he was allowed to come here in the first place. Al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The shabby sheik stirs up Durban Country Club
Groucho Marx memorably said that he wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would be so undiscriminating as to have him as a member. That’s clearly not a life philosophy shared by Schabir Shaik, former financial bagman for President Jacob Zuma and now paroled convict. This week a birdie whispered in my ear that […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Wannabe pilot Gigaba’s ill-fated flight of fantasy
While arrogance is undoubtedly an unattractive trait, in modern society it is so prevalent among politicians, top officials and corporate leaders as to be entirely unremarkable. However, when it combines with a stubborn inability to admit to error, it becomes dangerous. Until recently the most newsworthy act by Malusi Gigaba was dressing in the uniform […]
Posted inNews/Politics
South Africa drifts under an awol captain
President Jacob Zuma has been South Africa’s most detached leader ever. The result of his hands-off style and often mysterious absences is political capriciousness, organisational chaos, and an inability on the part of the state to govern effectively. In his laissez faire administration ministers have been allowed to do much as they wish in setting […]
Posted inNews/Politics
E-tolls: An ANC act of rare political courage
There is a slowly dawning realisation on the part of the African National Congress government that South Africa is staring down the fiscal abyss. The situation is dire. There are at least four public agencies — electricity supplier Eskom, SA National Roads Agency (Sanral), South African Airways (SAA), and the SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) — […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Ignoring the Oliphant in the room
During her Budget speech this week, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant extolled the virtuous circle of wages and economic growth. Workers needed to be paid decent wages to drive economic growth, she told MPs. “At the risk of sounding too simplistic” this made sense because South Africa’s economy is largely consumer-driven. “When workers earn a living […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The miserable death of a courageous man
I’ve never spoken with or had any dealings with Robin Stransham-Ford. But I now know enough to conclude that he was a man of great courage. Stransham-Ford died last week. His prostate cancer had metastasised to his spine, kidneys and lymph nodes. Stransham-Ford had applied to the North Gauteng High Court asking that if his […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Time to say bye-bye Phiyega?
It’s going on almost three years since the South African Police Service (SAPS) shot dead 34 striking miners and wounded 78 others at Marikana. And it’s now a full month since President Jacob Zuma was handed the findings of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into those deaths. Given that the inquiry dragged on for more […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Moving SA beyond a state of denial
It’s simply the way that South Africa is governed. A state of denial followed by a state of chaos. Then there is the slow dawn of reality, the gainsaying of responsibility and the search for scapegoats. Only when the cost of torpor becomes unsustainable come any attempts to address a problem until then steadfastly held […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How Helen Zille turned the DA upside down and inside out
Politics nowhere is for sissies. But South African politics is particularly vicious — a cesspit of blind hatred and vitriol, possibly unsurpassed among the democracies. Today’s leaders of both the governing African National Congress and the opposition Democratic Alliance have been particularly targeted. That they stoically endure this abuse is a measure of the resilient […]