On the 30th anniversary of South Africa’s Constitution, a UCT lecture reflecting on the country’s dwindling Jewish minority offers a telling measure of whether the constitutional promise of minority rights – made in Parliament on 8 May 1996 – is being honoured for all South Africans, writes Tony Leon. In places and events, both obvious and [...]
The recent arrests of Prince Andrew and President Yoon, along with a US Supreme Court ruling against Trump, signal a global reassertion of the rule of law. Tony Leon reflects whether it is a similar case in South Africa. “That Was the Week That Was”, the title of a 1960s British satirical revue, sprang vividly [...]
South Africa’s foreign ministry has squandered the diplomatic capital built during the Mandela era, replacing strategic thinking with impulsive gestures and transforming the country from a respected global mediator into an increasingly isolated fringe player, writes Tony Leon. It’s a stretch to use words and phrases such as “thoughtful” or “long-term strategy” or even “principled consistency” [...]
Former DA leader Tony Leon argues the party faces an existential identity crisis as it navigates between its historic role as effective opposition and its current position as part of the GNU, with its upcoming congress serving as a crucial moment to determine whether the party has been “muzzled” by the ANC or can leverage its [...]
Tony Leon traces a line from the Berlin Wall to Simon’s Town, arguing that South Africa’s choices now side with repression over freedom – risking trade, investment and diplomatic fallout. My late parliamentary colleague Harry Schwarz had a gift for explaining complexity in understandable terms. Many decades after his arrival in 1934 in South Africa [...]
Tony Leon questions whether current ANC and DA leadership can deliver on their repeated promises while staying true to their ideological foundations in the government of national unity. Bar the fact that both Winston Churchill, who saved the world from Nazism, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, current ruler of Dubai, loved horse racing, there [...]
From the R2 billion Tembisa Hospital looting spree to punitive racial quotas that could bankrupt retailers, the government continues to simultaneously rely on business to fix state failures while treating the private sector as an enemy of the people, argues Tony Leon. About a decade ago, I addressed a group of business leaders in Durban [...]
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s latest newsletter on fighting corruption reads like a masterclass in denial and euphemism, claiming South Africa must “build a society in which corruption cannot take root” while keeping Zondo Commission-implicated ministers in his Cabinet and failing to prosecute a single politician, despite overwhelming evidence of state capture, argues Tony Leon. On August [...]
South Africa’s leadership – “the lanyard class” – is dangerously disconnected from domestic realities, prioritising international engagement over pressing local concerns. And it will affect the outcome of elections, writes Tony Leon. In December 2019, former British prime minister, Boris Johnson, used Trumpian populism when he won the election on the back of Brexit. Though earlier [...]
By using Machiavelli to diagnose Ramaphosa and the ANC’s leadership, Tony Leon argues that they have achieved the worst possible outcome - neither feared nor loved by voters. The works of Niccolò Machiavelli - the medieval Florentine philosopher and diplomat - are still cited as a how-to manual for effective leadership in all realms. Machiavelli’s reputation as [...]
