Polokwane taught us that South Africans are tired of promises and of people with posh voices telling us what to do and doing nothing themselves. We begin 2008 with dreadful matric results — 21 500 young people failed in Gauteng alone. How is that possible in the wealthiest, best resourced province in Africa?
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
All you need in politics is a Thaksin and a bit of Zuma: Are you Msholozi in disguise?
If it hasn’t struck you yet, the similarities between African National Congress president Jacob Zuma and deposed, perhaps soon to be new, Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, are incredible. Let’s start by looking at an article in the Times of London. Anyone? Thaksin is a Thai in exile, facing charges of corruption yet sealed a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Just a ‘good ol’ boy’ from Nkandla
In December 2000, I stayed up every night watching CNN as the challenges to George Bush’s election never quite achieved tidal-wave proportions. They ebbed away when Al Gore finally quit. In South Africa people shook their heads: “Do the Americans understand what they have done?” Now the shoe is on the other foot. In December […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Denzel Washington and predictions for 2008
Denzel Washington once said to me: “The wonderful thing about predictions is they’re simultaneously the front door and the back door. You can be wrong a thousand times, but you only gotta be right once.” After the party in Polokwane, which, by all accounts went fairly well and a moerse lot of animals died, we […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mine’s bigger than yours
The ego of a politician, I’ve decided, rests less on the size of the manaconda (as my colleague Niren Tolsi so eloquently describes the penis) than on the size of the convoy. For a full week now, we’ve been bullied off roads by minor pols with big convoys. You should’ve seen the dickheads on the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The sinister Marc Dutroux cover-up (part two)
This is the second part in our investigation of the sinister police mishaps surrounding the case of Marc Dutroux. Read part one here. In December 1995, Dutroux was arrested for stealing a car. While in custody, plans were made for the search of his house. Hearing about this proposed search, the “rival” police agency gatecrashed […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma sings Umshini Wami at the ANC conference
The Mail & Guardian Online team just got back from Polokwane and Thembelihle Tshabalala had this video on her camera of ANC president Jacob Zuma singing Umshini Wami with the delegates after his first address. For those who weren’t there, or didn’t watch it on television, this clip gives you an idea of the power […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mr Jacob Zuma’s unofficial spokesperson
As I write this, I’m sitting on my cranky old couch watching Jacob Zuma defend himself against questioning from an astute journalist who has taken a line of questioning that questions his relationship with one currently incarcerated Schabir Shaik, among other issues that form the image of the new president of the African National Congress. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
If Zuma equals Zimbabwe, then Winnie must be my cousin
Have I got the wrong end of the brolly? I purposely stood back and watched the events of Polokwane unfold before trying to put together some sort of semi-rational analysis — not easy when you read some of the articles in the overseas press. They snatch at words or terms used in the run-up to […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Zuma memes
In the US coverage of President Thabo Mbeki, you constantly bump into words such as “aloof”, “technocratic”, “professorial” and, with regard to Aids in particular, “eccentric”. These are strands of the DNA of the dominant memes about him over here. Jacob Zuma’s memes are still in flux, which means he still has some control over […]
Posted inNews/Politics
If Zuma were a share
If Zuma were a share and you had told me to buy, buy, buy a year ago, I would have thought you were crazy and spent all my money speculating on the blue-chip “Tokyo” or the possible new listing “Ramaphosa” instead. Perhaps that is both equally an indication that Jacob Zuma’s political recovery has been […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Now we know what we aren’t — but what are we?
OK, so we know now that we are not Zimbabwe. It will take a whole lot longer before we know clearly what we are — or, rather, what we are becoming. The key implication of the Zuma victory is, surely, the point made by some grassroots delegates and a few commentators this week: that it […]