Monthly Archives: April 2017

Cometh the hour, cometh the man — in Pretoria as in Paris

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 [...]

This doctor won’t cure SA

If you have liked the presidency of Jacob Zuma so far, you will love the possible future rule of his former wife, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. And while our Department of International Relations and Co-operation has been mute on the use by the Syrian government of poison gas on its own people, it has found the [...]

TONY LEON: ANC faithful loath to find fault with Zuma despite SA’s downward spiral

Party members, like victims of Stalin who believed in the system, cannot accept movement has lost the plot In his final tour de force before his death in 2010, the great modern historian Tony Judt described how key victims of Stalin remained — to the bitter end, often unto death — true believers in the [...]

The Big Read: Shaky hands on the joystick

New Finance Minister Malusi Gigabi loves fashion shows and dressing up. Two cabinet posts back, he arrived at the opening of parliament impersonating an SAA pilot. I thought at the time - given that he was the minister responsible for the disastrously mismanaged national carrier - there was something deeply symbolic in a politician pretending [...]

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