Tony Leon: On The Record with Adriaan Basson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmzCE6ZhYIQ
No, not every public affairs firm is Bell Pottinger
To draw a parallel between Bell Pottinger and the ordinary, transparent work of helping a lawful business make its case to the government is not just inaccurate – it is a malicious inversion of the truth so complete that it should give every citizen pause, writes Tony Leon. Given his appalling popularity ratings and his party [...]
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 DA’s Kempton Park moment with a shock eight-vote win in Evaton
From the shock of Wakkerstroom in 1924 to the DA’s razor-thin eight-vote victory in a 98% black township nearly a century later, South Africa’s by-elections have often signalled shifts in the political weather long before the storm arrives, writes Tony Leon. Just over a century ago, on 17 June 1924, the National Party won its first [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
It’s Topical | Is Geordin Hill-Lewis the right person to lead the DA?
Geordin Hill-Lewis served as Chief of Staff to former DA leaders Helen Zille and Mmusi Maimane. He was the youngest Member of Parliament when elected in 2011, at the age of 24. Now 39, he takes over the reins from John Steenhuisen as the new leader of the Democratic Alliance. The question now is: what [...]