Just over three months ago President Jacob Zuma was sailing towards the African National Congress leadership conference with only clear water to be spied ahead of him. Now the good ship Msholozi is battered, yawing from side to side, and its skipper panicked. What happened? After all, a home province membership drive promised KwaZulu-Natal a […]
Mangaung
Posted inNews/Politics
How should we remember Zuma’s presidency?
History is a complex social construction but a few grand narratives tend to stick out. Among other stories we’ll remember Mandela as the reconciliatory president, asking us to throw our “pangas into the sea” and forgive. We’ll remember Mbeki’s poetic appeal to our African identity, an aloof renaissance man and, bitter-sweet, as the statesman who […]
Posted inNews/Politics
South Africa, a democracy only in form
I’ve come to despise elections because they’ve been used to warp democracy. Invariably, each time I’ve said this, one of you lot has had a conniption because you’ve misinterpreted this as me saying people should not vote. Don’t assume. Read — and exercise your atrophied comprehension muscle. There’s an accounting principle known as substance over […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Obama and Mangaung
Truth never damages a cause that is just — Mohandas Gandhi And so Barack Obama takes the presidency. A congratulatory note to the American people for choosing leadership continuity. We must take this moment to recognise the smooth and painless electoral process that sees Obama with another opportunity to effect change domestically and internationally. Presumably […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Kgalema (anyone but Zuma) Motlanthe
By David Smith There are two gestures now essential to understanding South African politics. One is a rolling hand motion as practised by football fans when calling for a player to be substituted. The player they want yanked off is the president, Jacob Zuma. The other is the cupping of a hand at a downward […]
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 inEquality, News/Politics
How far is South Africa from a female president?
The road to Mangaung is paved with good intentions, but none of these intentions include advancing women to the position of president or deputy president. This year’s race is patriarchal to the core — just have a look at the effort that’s been put into pushing the Traditional Courts Bill through the system despite the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
To Mangaung and beyond
So what happens after Mangaung? What happens to the main role-players whose names are being bandied about in the media and their supporters? How will the results affect the contesting leaders, the ANC itself and most importantly how will it affect SA? There are only two results that can emerge out of Mangaung if the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The Zuma government is floundering about
For almost a year President Jacob Zuma has been preoccupied with ensuring that he gets a second term at the African National Congress’ elective conference to be held in Mangaung in December. Such single-minded determination would be admirable, had it anything to do with wanting to lead the nation. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. Zuma is not […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Of Marxist wastelands and aborted transitions
On the occasion of the African National Congress’s 100th anniversary early this year, there was a literary text that kept playing inside my subconscious mind every time I watched or read about this momentous event – one of the most significant of our time. It is a passage from Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah: […]
Posted inGeneral
Tackling President Zuma
Not for the first time, the country was brought almost to a standstill by its president’s membrum virile. Only this time it wasn’t because the polygamous president had unsafe intercourse with the HIV positive daughter of a close friend; nor was he caught in adultery with another comrade’s daughter. It was not the revelation of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Malema soap opera II
ANC Youth League deputy secretary general Kenetswe Mosenogi today shattered my utmost fantasy. I have always fantasised about her as an intelligent, beautiful, sexy, articulate, sassy and all round attractive young woman. This was shattered all at once (except maybe beautiful) when I heard her on SAfm this afternoon being interviewed by Tshepiso Makwetla. She […]