President’s enemies in the ANC probably decided not to hand opposition parties the gift of an indebted leader
Like pupils at a Montessori School, all the dramatis personae in last week’s long-running parliamentary no-confidence saga — the eighth such motion to date in an eight-year presidency — against Jacob Zuma could award themselves a gold star. […]
In these dark times of our dire national condition, shafts of inspiration and light are hard to find.
Indeed, on the day of parliament’s latest vote of no-confidence in President Jacob Zuma, almost one for every year of his disastrousmisrule of the nation, there’s a lot more heat than light barrelling towards us.
Clashing armies of protesters […]
So if you are wondering whether it is futile‚ in the face of an uncaring state‚ a runaway presidency and the ghastly tentacles of the Guptas – to sign a petition‚ march on Parliament‚ or merely send an email to your MP‚ consider the dire situation faced by 400 000 soldiers in Dunkirk.
And‚ more pertinently‚ […]
Zuma’s fate is in the hands of MPs who get paid for party loyalty
Much anticipation accompanies Members of Parliament when they convene on 8 August to debate the motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma.
Many member, probably think the following formula of words do justice to the gravity of Zuma’s continuance in office:
“You have sat here for […]
Meanwhile, Putin reduces the reputations of Zuma’s SA and Trump’s US to the level of his kleptocratic regime
About 120 years ago, my paternal grandmother, Tamara Drusinsky – then a babe in arms – left Russia for Constantinople, and eventually arrived with her family in SA
More recently, when President Vladimir Putin visited Parliament in Cape Town […]
Nelson Mandela was born last week 99 years ago, when the telegraph was the means of mass communication. But much of the commemoration of his July 18 birthdaywas in cyberspace across social media platforms.
One such meme sent to me on the birthday, appropriately encased in a black border, bore the legend: “It ’s little use having 1 Mandela day and 364 […]
Imagine you own a large and successful plumbing and sanitation company. You decide to go big with the launch of your new corporate headquarters. You invite your major clients and the media to the event.
Then, moments after the event commences, disaster strikes. In full view of the assembled dignitaries, the pipes burst, spewing water all […]
Israel is one of the few countries available for the South African political establishment to burnish their human rights credentials.
For reasons of solidarity and expediency or simple inattention, such gross rights violators as Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Syria –where political protestors are shot dead, imprisoned or gassed with poison respectively, escape both attention and censure.
Thus the […]
‘ The courts, despite some energetic rigging attempts by the majority party, still push back against a delinquent state; civil society, far from being muzzled, is fully throated in its denunciations of state capture and corruption’
Does distance lend enchantment, or just more distance?Writing this column in Tel Aviv, on the day Israel celebrates its 69th […]
Last Sunday heralded the promise of real political change in France and South Africa. Tony Leon analyses the parallels and differences
There’s a pessimistic French expression Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose, which translates as the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Two unrelated political events exactly one week ago will- depending […]
