Newsday: The man who created the DA and took the party from 338,000 to 2.9 million votes
https://newsday.co.za/south-africa/28858/the-man-who-created-the-da-and-took-the-party-from-338000-to-2-9-million-votes/
Newsday interview: ANC is in a death spiral
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-gDZ7_zl_4 Tony Leon, former Democratic Alliance leader, diplomat and author, joins Newsday’s Antowan Nothling for a candid conversation about the ANC’s decline, the DA’s prospects and South Africa’s strained relationship with the United States. Leon explains why he believes the ANC is in a “death spiral” and warns that winning the most votes will not [...]
Tony Leon: On The Record with Adriaan Basson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmzCE6ZhYIQ
SA’s state is hollowed out, and 30 June will show us exactly how much
Tony Leon draws on Martin Niemöller’s First They Came, warning that the country’s decaying institutions, political ambivalence, and rising anti-immigrant mob justice are creating a dangerous echo of the scapegoating and silence that enabled atrocities elsewhere. The renewed festival of hate against migrants in South Africa is a timely reminder of the famous 1946 prose of German [...]
Triangulate or tergiversate: The only two moves left in the political playbook
From Bismarck to Blair, the art of political triangulation has delivered landslide victories – but as Cyril Ramaphosa’s hollow pivot on immigration shows, co-opting the politics of others is no substitute for the courage to change your own, writes Tony Leon. If you want to get current politics down to a T here and everywhere, just [...]
The lessons SA’s leaders don’t want to learn
While Cyril Ramaphosa traded shame and fury in Parliament over SA’s jobs catastrophe, three of the world’s foremost historians gathered in Franschhoek to offer the kind of honest reckoning our leaders refuse to have with themselves, writes Tony Leon. Two sobering insights were offered last week on the state of SA Inc. Last Tuesday, the Quarterly [...]
From Westminster to Phala Phala: Two leaders, one fight for survival GalleryFrom Westminster to Phala Phala: Two leaders, one fight for survival
African National Congress (ANC), British politics, Corruption, Cyril Ramaphosa, Democratic Alliance, International Politics, Parliament, Phala Phala, Sir Keir Starmer, South African Politics, UK Politics, Westminister
From Westminster to Phala Phala: Two leaders, one fight for survival
Two leaders, two continents, one embattled defiance – Keir Starmer and Cyril Ramaphosa are clinging to power, but while Britain’s crisis is political, South Africa’s cuts far deeper, writes Tony Leon. “When the herd moves, it moves,” Boris Johnson ruefully remarked when his Conservative Party forced his exit as UK prime minister in July 2022, just two [...]
History done right offers clarity for today and hope for tomorrow
As disillusionment grows and 80% of the population has no direct memory of that 1994 milestone, Tony Leon warns that dumbing down history education will only deepen the disconnect. A wise caution on how we recall the past, and who does the recording, was offered by historian CV Wedgwood. She noted: “History is lived forwards, [...]
Meyer’s challenge: Playing high stakes roulette in Trump’s casino GalleryMeyer’s challenge: Playing high stakes roulette in Trump’s casino
African National Congress (ANC), British politics, Cabinet, Cyril Ramaphosa, Donald Trump, International Politics, Iran, Mandelson, South African Politics, Starmer, UK Politics, World Politics
Meyer’s challenge: Playing high stakes roulette in Trump’s casino
Tony Leon examines how newly appointed South African ambassador Roelf Meyer faces the near-impossible task of reconciling South Africa’s racial transformation policies with Donald Trump’s administration’s fierce opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion programmes. Consequences will follow the appointment of Roelf Meyer by President Cyril Ramaphosa as SA ambassador to the US. Though one of them [...]
Geordin’s gambit: Why aiming high beats treading water at 20%
New DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis inherits a 25-year-old question from former French PM Lionel Jospin about whether his party can evolve from opposition to a genuine governing alternative – and he’s betting everything on a resounding “yes” for 2029, writes Tony Leon. Last month, France’s former socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin died aged 88. His death [...]