Thomas More’s prescription sola mors tyrranicida est (“death is the only way to be rid of tyrants”) proved to be half-right when 95-year-old Robert Mugabe died in Singapore. Theoretically, it was not his physical demise but a political event, an in-house coup by his one-time trusted deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, in 2017, which led to his downfall. But [...]
Party politics aside, what is best for us as citizens? This time a decade ago, when the ANC was defenestrating its then all-powerful president Thabo Mbeki, I was an ocean away in the ice and snow which encased Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Being gifted with a five-month fellowship at the university's John F Kennedy [...]
Black Friday arrived on these shores in triplicate last week. First there was the chaotic retail therapy which saw smashed shopping mall windows, crashed e-commerce websites and big bargains as South Africans went shopping. Second there was Robert Mugabe's inglorious end as the 93-year-old despot gave way to a 75-year-old successor with, to be diplomatic, [...]
Robert Mugabe’s inglorious end this week after decades of tyranny defied the outcome to which Thomas More gave voice over 500 years ago. Mugabe like More is Catholic but, unlike the latter, he was no saint. And the Zimbabwean military disproved the More prophesy sola more tyrannicida est –‘death is the only way to be [...]
