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 [...]
In a striking historical irony, the ANC’s defiant rhetoric against Western sanctions eerily mirrors PW Botha’s failed 1986 stance, while the party’s romanticised invocation of Codesa for today’s National Dialogue fundamentally misunderstands how apartheid actually ended – through backroom bilateral negotiations, not public consultation, writes Tony Leon. “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes”, is [...]
https://www.news24.com/multimedia/podcasts/podcast-the-lead-tony-leon-on-the-state-of-the-gnu-the-da-and-brown-envelopes-20250806-1023
It is a case of every man, woman or party for themselves, and the country buckles in the absence of joined-up government, writes Tony Leon. In Zbig, a new and fascinating biography of the late hardline US National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Edward Luce writes, “figures in senior [government] roles have no time to replenish their stock [...]
