A national crisis is always best resolved quickly. Investors and voters both react negatively to political paralysis and institutional dysfunction. And since protracted uncertainty begets instability, it’s mostly better to find a quick patch and keep the momentum going than it is to embark on an agonising and usually elusive search for the “best” solution. […]
ANC factionalism
Posted inNews/Politics
Factional politics destroying ANC from within
The appointment of Danny Jordaan as the new mayor of the troubled Nelson Mandela Bay municipality is interesting from two perspectives. First it demonstrates the central weakness in our electoral system ie that the will of the people is subordinate to the interests of the governing party. Jordaan was parachuted to this role, he wasn’t […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Forget Mangaung. Budget politics is where it’s at
Xolela Mangcu in his latest book Biko – A Biography writes about a “big-chief syndrome” that exists among the current ruling elite, in which followers are placed at the mercy of the “chief”. South Africans arguably suffer as much as politicians from big-chief syndrome, in that we imbue leaders with inordinate power. This has to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Marikana, the sign of a schizophrenic state
As assault charges are laid against the police in the aftermath of the Marikana massacre, the outrageous reality is that torture is still not criminalised in South Africa. A draft law called the Prevention and Combating of Torture of Persons Bill is before parliament but far from adoption. The relevant parliamentary committee has postponed the […]