If the rich and powerful are afforded amnesty, then so too must the poor who are often pushed into lives of crime
Thuli Madonsela
Posted inNews/Politics
David kicks Goliath in the Nkandla gonads
The Constitutional Court judgment on Nkandla and the powers of the public protector has been hanging above the heads of President Jacob Zuma and the African National Congress government like an unexploded bomb. That it was delivered on Thursday, a mere six weeks after counsel for both side delivered their summations, was a sign that […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Public Protector in the courts – what does it mean for me?
By Tess Peacock This week in the news Thuli Madonsela, our Public Protector, is going to court on the Nkandla matter. Why? This is about power, power and power. The Constitution divides government into three components: the executive (the president and his ministers), the judiciary (all the courts) and the legislature (our representatives in Parliament). […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Madonsela’s challenge: ‘So, are you feeling Lucky, punk?’
Lucky Montana, former chief executive of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), this week accused Public Protector Thuli Madonsela of having a tendency to “create drama”. He was responding to the findings of her inquiry into Prasa irregularities, which details more than R2 billion in misappropriated funds and lays responsibility at his door. Whether […]
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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 […]
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Just a thin line that keeps SA from going bust
When a top businessman like Johann Rupert states unambiguously to his shareholders that the country is in the dwang and going bust slowly, the riposte is predictable. It’s along the lines: “Of course he would say that. He’s an old, white, wealthy Afrikaner, hankering for the days when his Nationalist Party mates ran things.” They […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Close the gate quietly behind you when you leave, Mr President
Watergate set the trend. Since then we have locally had Muldergate, Travelgate, Guptagate and now Nkandlagate. There are others, quickly forgotten as new political outrages displace the old more swiftly than one can keep track. The gate suffix is now so ubiquitous through journalistic overuse as to be meaningless. Especially given what separates the first […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Is the public protector an ‘enforcer’ or a ‘recommender’?
The public protector has dominated the news yet again this year, and I’m sure this has been the year with the most coverage in the public protector’s history. One thing that has been outstanding is the debate around the powers of the office of the public protector. The public protector falls under chapter nine institutions, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Time to pull thumb, Mr President
Some of President Jacob Zuma’s top people were all thumbs this week. First up was deputy Defence Minister Kebby Maphatsoe, who also heads the party’s Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Military Veterans’ Association. Speaking at a Soweto memorial service, he accused the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela of being an agent for the United States Central Intelligence Agency. […]
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Zuma’s gilded battlements besieged by the public protector
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s long delayed report into the expenditure of at least R246-million of taxpayer money on President Jacob Zuma’s rural home at Nkandla is undoubtedly the non-fiction must-read of the year. And equally, were they to be collected into a single volume, the tripartite alliance’s attack dogs’ ongoing attempts at discrediting the report […]
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A family destroyed by bureaucratic bullies
At a stroke past Saturday midnight, Thijs van Hillegondsberg becomes a wanted man. He will be arrested at his Strand home, jailed, tried, likely committed to a Home Affairs detention centre, processed and eventually bundled onto a plane to the Netherlands. This is because Van Hillegondsberg is an illegal immigrant and has been served with […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A triumphant year for the judiciary
The man who casts himself proudly as “100% Zulu boy” is set for a victory worthy of the Zulu hero, King Shaka. This weekend President Jacob Zuma will vanquish all at the African National Congress’ leadership contest, with his formidable impi. The size of the KwaZulu-Natal of delegation to Mangaung should easily ensure that the […]