When future historians write the current chapter of our national story, they will be spoilt for choice on its title. Explaining how the once great hope of Africa slid down from the largest, investment grade economy on the continent, to third place, in a handful of years, and shed 1.3m jobs since 2009 (according to [...]
I FIRST saw the phrase "for my friends, everything; for my enemies the law" with reference to the modus operandi of Russia’s pitiless president, Vladimir Putin. If you read accounts of the kleptocracy in the Kremlin and the ruthless manner in which Putin’s diktat is enforced, it seems an understatement. The recently published book Red [...]
An ornithologist noted that starlings, or the Indian myna here, move "at the same time, in the same direction, and all at once". You could say exactly the same thing about much of the noise in South Africa that passes for analysis of our political economy. Originality and, heaven forbid, dissenting from the conventional wisdom, [...]
The rule of law here and everywhere is a fragile instrument. It is capable of capture by ruthless politicians There is one book every South African, except perhaps Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, should read. Red Notice — How I became Putin‘s No.1 Enemy by Bill Browder has, as the title suggests, nothing to do with [...]
