By Abiye Teklemariam and Janice Winter Popular revolutions do not generally end with protesters storming presidential palaces. Success is most often achieved by their ability to breach the unity of the regime’s power base. Such divisions manifest in several ways: reluctance of the armed forces to take action against protesters, regime moderates distancing themselves from…
I like Zapiro. I like that his cartoons are irreverent, provocative, incisive, humorous and hyperbolic; that no matter how ostensibly offensive, they are almost always perfectly on point. And I like that they piss powerful people off. But not this week. A first for me, I find Friday’s M&G cartoon disappointing, its message inaccurate and…
I’m not so sure we do. As South Africans we’re great at asserting our unity as “a people”, by quoting Tutu, Mandela and even Mbeki (though not Zuma — not yet, anyway) about rainbows or renaissances, and we’re especially good at performing our proudly South African brand of “unity through diversity” — just look at…
Zuma has received his award as Newsmaker of the Year for 2009. Not surprising, given last year’s events: a mixed bag, with the withdrawal of corruption charges, his election to the presidency, the launch of the presidential hotline and controversial appointments of a new chief justice, national director of public prosecutions and national police commissioner,…
If we had a national genie, my three requests to her would be: To make us a country rich in the resource of leadership defined by wisdom, vision and integrity; To make us a forward-looking nation, while never forgetting our past; and To enact sufficient social and economic justice to foster a genuine sense of…
If the state is judging the state of the nation, then it’s up to the nation to judge the state of the state The shower head is back: and this time it’s super-sized. I’ll be interested to see its proportions and position after yesterday’s State of the Nation Address. Last night President Zuma was in…
Our president has just admitted to having fathered his 20th child — this time, not the child of any of his five wives, but of a friend’s daughter. No, not the friend’s daughter by whom he was accused of rape. Another friend’s daughter. This time he scored with the daughter of Soccer World Cup local…
