Consider an alternate history written for the 29 May elections in South Africa. As a work of historical fiction – based on real characters and actual events – it could include these "facts": The DA leader, the largest opposition party, is banned from participating in the poll; the ANC, the governing party, is accorded unfettered [...]
Timing in life and politics is everything. So, spare a thought for new Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau. He arrived on Tuesday in Washington DC, as head of a government-business delegation seeking to engage Congress and the White House on retaining our Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) privileges and mitigating the fallout from [...]
On Thursday evening, many South Africans will tune in to Cyril Ramaphosa's opening address to Parliament on behalf of his newly installed multiparty government. But few in the world will take notice. This is not just because Sygnia CEO Magda Wierzycka, no doubt accurately, opined recently that "South Africa has become irrelevant in terms of [...]
The 1996 Constitution formalised the office and role of the leader of the opposition. Section 57(1)(d) of the Constitution obliges the National Assembly to recognise "the leader of the largest opposition party in the Assembly as the Leader of the Opposition". The first holder of the post was also the briefest occupant of the office: [...]
My recent reimmersion into the murky waters of SA politics during the negotiation for the new and very large government of national unity was a reminder of why I quit political leadership in 2007. I have renewed admiration for those who toil at the political grindstone but, politics like acting (and former British prime minister [...]
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