Zuma has become symbol of South Africa’s deep-seated problems but, if we are to move on, we must lose our obsession with him
election
Posted inNews/Politics
An African perspective on the US elections chaos
Africans are much more familiar with post-election problems than are Americans. The difference is Donald Trump pulled every trick in the book to remain president, but failed
Posted inEnvironment, News/Politics
What does free and fair mean?
This Human Rights Day, I think it is appropriate to ask, “What is a free and fair election?”. Simply it means that each voter is freely able to choose the option of his or her own choice, and that each contestant is fairly able to compete for each voter’s consideration. So, on the surface, it […]
Posted inEnvironment, General, News/Politics
I hate when this happens
I’ve just finished reading the Democratic Alliance’s document, “The Manifesto For Change”. It consists of three parts. The first itemises its economic solutions, the second details its social solutions and the third highlights its political solutions. The DA has been in opposition for a long time, and you can see this in the way that […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Equality, Gender violence, General, Health, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics, Sport, Tech
The manifesto for change
Beware of political parties promising you the world in their manifestos and campaign materials. Believe it or not politicians are quite flexible with both reality and the truth. With this in mind I started reading the Democratic Alliance’s manifesto for change. The first line on the website reads, “The Manifesto for Change is our contract […]
Posted inEnvironment, News/Politics
It’s Not All GOOD
Again Patricia De Lille has left her political home and has once again established a new political party. I think back to 2003, when I was an intern floating about the Parliamentary Precinct, doing nonsensical things; and Patricia De Lille left the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) and established the Independent Democrats (ID). Resplendent […]
Posted inEnvironment, News/Politics
New political party in its first election outing
Okay, so I have decided to make my decision publicly. Cue the applause and the investigations, I want polite applause for the democratic victory, and I want a thorough, purposeful, unrelenting and invasive investigation that finds and interrogates every individual thing and every possible system that has anything to do with this matter. There is […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Voting is not as simple as it is made out to be
So, I have registered to vote in South Africa for the first time. Who, then, shall I vote for? Sometimes the simplest questions are unbearably difficult to answer. The easy part is, of course, entering the polling booth, a domain situated behind a veil of secrecy, and enact perhaps the most atomistic ritual in liberal […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Voting is no favour to any political party
By Gugu Ndima There is a growing concern at the rate in which the loosely categorised “born-frees” or “Mandela generation” is registering to vote. The current percentage of young people eligible to vote between the ages of 18 and 29 currently sits at 8.4%. As a nation this should be of grave concern given that […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zimbabwe elections: A conspiracy theory
While Egypt became the first example of expedience over democracy being openly accepted, if not actively promoted, by Western democracies it is going to find its match in Zimbabwe during the course of this week albeit without the fanfare and publicity that is occasioned by a military coup. The outcome, in my most humble opinion, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Any hope for Zimbabwe?
To sincerely (and fiercely) discuss Zimbabwe’s future, we must first recount what we know about Zimbabwe’s past. The past is the appropriate context within which we must frame our judgment of Zimbabwe’s progress. We know that in the “Scramble for Africa” Zimbabwe became a British colony. That in 1930 land ownership was racialised by the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Iranian elections hail new era of dialogue
The ushering to power of a “reformist” in Iran’s recent elections happened not because of the government influence, but in spite of it. Having the stigma of a doubtful presidential election result from 2010 many experts and Iran watchers expected similar problems with last week’s election. But with an estimated 50% of Iran’s 50 million registered […]