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 [...]
While R1.5 trillion has been promised at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s investment conference, South Africa’s actual capital formation has plummeted from 20 to 14% of GDP, suggesting that real investment – like Natie Kirsh’s R500 billion business empire built in America – requires genuine structural reforms and competitive markets, not just pledges, writes Tony Leon. “Cyril loves [...]
While President Ramaphosa touts G20 success and foreign policy achievements, he should keep in mind that voters overwhelmingly prioritise domestic economic concerns like jobs and corruption over international relations, writes Tony Leon. “There are few votes in foreign affairs,” was the response I received from a local politician. This, after I enquired why his party had [...]
From Reagan’s Hollywood charm to Nixon’s strategic depth, America’s most effective presidents surrounded themselves with brilliant advisors - a lesson Paul Mashatile, the likely next ANC president, would do well to heed as his party’s grip on national power continues to weaken, writes Tony Leon. Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, who served [...]
It is too soon to reckon the consequences in America and the world after last week’s events. Except for the obvious conclusion that the boundaries in which normal political events and discourse are bordered have been stretched ever further, writes Tony Leon. George Bernard Shaw’s mordant line that “assassination is the extreme form of censorship” got [...]