The recent row over the VAT increase obscured some of the real issues which go to the heart of the economic policies which have added layers to the mountain of unemployment which disfigures our national landscape and have cratered our economy, writes Tony Leon. Any sentient South African who watched the 1988 comedy movie A Fish Called [...]
As Colin Eglin's centenary passes unnoticed, Paul Mashatile employs Trumpian tactics to undermine institutions others built. The contrast is stark, writes Tony Leon, from principled constitutional craftsmanship to power-hungry opportunism masquerading as progress. Monday, 14 April 2025, marked the centenary of the birth of Colin Eglin. Both this anniversary and the man himself are mostly [...]
In an act of conspicuous national self-destruction, the ANC has set the scene for the ejection of the DA from the GNU, writes Tony Leon. Circa 1899, the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, developed the idea of "screen memory". This suggested that one memory can function to hide another, typically, unconscious mental content. Perhaps only psychologists [...]
Logan Roy was the magnificent and monstrous patriarch at the centre of the satirical television masterpiece Succession. In the second episode of its final season in 2023, Roy delivered a killer line to his dysfunctional children, "I love you, but you are not serious people". Absent any amity, indeed amid high levels of acrimony, "you [...]
"Talk is cheap, money buys the whiskey" is a true and informed adage. And this does not refer to the rise in "sin taxes" on booze likely to be introduced on Wednesday afternoon when Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana unveils his budget in Parliament. Instead, it applies to the cheap talk from various politicians. SA "will not [...]
Eminent American historian Timothy Snyder wrote in the introduction to his short book On Tyranny, "History does not repeat itself but it does instruct." The subtitle of his work, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, is helpful in navigating the current crisis which has engulfed SA-US relations, now at their worst point since 1986. In I986, the [...]
The well-known jurist, Mr Justice Fikile Mbalula, has rendered judgment. Opining from the X (previously Twitter) division of the High Court on Monday, in the matter of a contractual dispute between two parties (Cyril Ramaphosa in his capacity as president of SA, and John Steenhuisen, on behalf of the DA), Mbalula J., held: "Clause 19 does [...]
Does South Africa and its government have a growth strategy? This simple but fundamental question consists, of course, of two parts. And no easy answers. First the "growth" part. Libraries of books and gridfuls of electrons underline why economic growth is the fundamental basis for all other arenas of public goods, from human upliftment (and its [...]
Was it the heat in Thabazimbi on Sunday or, perhaps, he was stung when his party provincial secretary in KwaZulu-Natal labelled him "weak"? Whatever the cause, by the usual "aural valium" standard of many of Cyril Ramaphosa's remarks, his attack on the process which led to a settlement of the contentious Basic Education Laws Amendment [...]
According to a survey of historical scholars published by US News and World Report, American President Warren G Harding (29th president 1921-1923) was rated the sixth worst since the office was established in 1789 by founding father George Washington (rated third best). Harding had many strikes against him during his short tenure, but one of [...]
