Tony Leon: On The Record with Adriaan Basson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmzCE6ZhYIQ
No, not every public affairs firm is Bell Pottinger
To draw a parallel between Bell Pottinger and the ordinary, transparent work of helping a lawful business make its case to the government is not just inaccurate – it is a malicious inversion of the truth so complete that it should give every citizen pause, writes Tony Leon. Given his appalling popularity ratings and his party [...]
SA’s state is hollowed out, and 30 June will show us exactly how much
Tony Leon draws on Martin Niemöller’s First They Came, warning that the country’s decaying institutions, political ambivalence, and rising anti-immigrant mob justice are creating a dangerous echo of the scapegoating and silence that enabled atrocities elsewhere. The renewed festival of hate against migrants in South Africa is a timely reminder of the famous 1946 prose of German [...]
Defeat is an orphan: What Bafana’s opener says about South Africa
Bafana’s dismal World Cup opener against Mexico is more than a football story, writes Tony Leon. He argues that it’s a damning metaphor for a nation where accountability is absent, mediocrity is rewarded, and the gap between 1995’s Springbok glory and today’s decline grows ever wider. Nick Hornby’s “Fever Pitch” was a 1992 best seller chronicling [...]
Triangulate or tergiversate: The only two moves left in the political playbook
From Bismarck to Blair, the art of political triangulation has delivered landslide victories – but as Cyril Ramaphosa’s hollow pivot on immigration shows, co-opting the politics of others is no substitute for the courage to change your own, writes Tony Leon. If you want to get current politics down to a T here and everywhere, just [...]
The DA’s Kempton Park moment with a shock eight-vote win in Evaton
From the shock of Wakkerstroom in 1924 to the DA’s razor-thin eight-vote victory in a 98% black township nearly a century later, South Africa’s by-elections have often signalled shifts in the political weather long before the storm arrives, writes Tony Leon. Just over a century ago, on 17 June 1924, the National Party won its first [...]
Anti-fascism, Russian style: What was the ANC doing in Moscow this week? GalleryAnti-fascism, Russian style: What was the ANC doing in Moscow this week?
African National Congress (ANC), Iran, Mokonyane, Russia, Russian War, South African Politics, Trump, United States, US President, Venezuela, World Politics
Anti-fascism, Russian style: What was the ANC doing in Moscow this week?
While South Africa faces xenophobic blowback from its African neighbours, the ANC’s Nomvula Mokonyane spent Africa Day in Moscow – a telling snapshot of a party whose foreign policy is mired in Cold War nostalgia, writes Tony Leon. Nomvula Mokonyane, ANC deputy secretary-general, fronts the party’s foreign policy and heads its international engagements. This week on [...]
The lessons SA’s leaders don’t want to learn
While Cyril Ramaphosa traded shame and fury in Parliament over SA’s jobs catastrophe, three of the world’s foremost historians gathered in Franschhoek to offer the kind of honest reckoning our leaders refuse to have with themselves, writes Tony Leon. Two sobering insights were offered last week on the state of SA Inc. Last Tuesday, the Quarterly [...]
From Westminster to Phala Phala: Two leaders, one fight for survival GalleryFrom Westminster to Phala Phala: Two leaders, one fight for survival
African National Congress (ANC), British politics, Corruption, Cyril Ramaphosa, Democratic Alliance, International Politics, Parliament, Phala Phala, Sir Keir Starmer, South African Politics, UK Politics, Westminister
From Westminster to Phala Phala: Two leaders, one fight for survival
Two leaders, two continents, one embattled defiance – Keir Starmer and Cyril Ramaphosa are clinging to power, but while Britain’s crisis is political, South Africa’s cuts far deeper, writes Tony Leon. “When the herd moves, it moves,” Boris Johnson ruefully remarked when his Conservative Party forced his exit as UK prime minister in July 2022, just two [...]
Canary in the Constitution: What future of SA Jews tells us about our democracy GalleryCanary in the Constitution: What future of SA Jews tells us about our democracy
African National Congress (ANC), Antisemitism, International Politics, Israel, Jacob Zuma, Jewish, MK, Sooliman, South African Politics, Zionists
Canary in the Constitution: What future of SA Jews tells us about our democracy
On the 30th anniversary of South Africa’s Constitution, a UCT lecture reflecting on the country’s dwindling Jewish minority offers a telling measure of whether the constitutional promise of minority rights – made in Parliament on 8 May 1996 – is being honoured for all South Africans, writes Tony Leon. In places and events, both obvious and [...]