inside politics

Analysis of and commentary on South African politics.

4 July 2012

The ANC’s top 20 violent fights

FEATURE: Everyone knows the ANC is factionalised and infighting is rife but how bad is it? We hear scattered reports of violence and mayhem at ANC meetings but do we have the full picture? In an attempt to demonstrate just how serious the divisions are and to what extent the party is, literally, at war with itself, I present the ANC’s top 20 violent fights: a range of examples of how the party has turned in on itself over the past few years and the bloody consequences.

Read the rest of this entry »

8 Comments

3 July 2012

On clichés

SERIES: The Thing About is a weekly Business Day column designed to discuss democratic ideas, ideals, values and principles from a liberal perspective. Cliches are now so common their effect has been denuded of its value – instead of enliving debate, they dull it down. And, with their over-use, has come the uncritical perception they suggest wisdom and knowledge. A perception often abused by those whom evoke and hide behind their empty meaning.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

2 July 2012

Why has Cape Town hosted Bafana Bafana just four times in 19 years?

FEATURE: Did you know Cape Town has hosted Bafana Bafana just four times in 19 years? That is a fairly remarkable fact. The city is hardly the sporting backwaters. In fact, almost every argument you can come up with against Cape Town hosting the national soccer team does not, on the evidence, appear to hold any weight. To see who has hosted the most games and why Cape Town deserves to see the national team more often, read on.

Read the rest of this entry »

5 Comments

29 June 2012

Why Stormers rugby supporters are statistically the best

FEATURE: That headline got your attention, didn’t it? (Apologies to Tina Turner). Here follows a lighthearted story for a Friday. I have put together all the attendance figures for South Africa’s home matches in this year’s Super 15 rugby competition. From the title you will have already guessed which team boasts the support base that turns out in the largest numbers but, if you’d like all the facts and figures, the best and the worst, here they all are – read on; well, unless you’re a Sharks fan, in which case you should probably be at the stadium.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

28 June 2012

On binary thinking

SERIES: The Thing About is a weekly Business Day column designed to discuss democratic ideas, ideals, values and principles from a liberal perspective. Binary thinking – the idea that, in any situation, a person has only two choices – is pervasive. Moralisers reinforce the idea – their favourite two choices being ‘good’ and ‘bad’. Inevitably though, on closer inspection, there will exist far more than just two options and education and knowledge are key to being able to recognise this.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

27 June 2012

7 of the worst: How the ANC rewards corruption

FEATURE: Jacob Zuma yesterday used his speech to the ANC’s 2012 policy conference to speak out against what he called ‘alien tendencies’ in the party – things like corruption and the abuse of power. Who did he think he was kidding? Zuma has himself rewarded those very things. By way of illustration, here is a list of seven ANC MPs, all found guilty in the Travelgate scandal, all re-elected, most rewarded with promotion (by Zuma) and including their salaries – so you can see just how much political loyalty costs.

Read the rest of this entry »

26 June 2012

The best of Inside Politics

FEATURE: Inside Politics has now been up and running for five months. I thought I would use the opportunity to provide a helpful overview of some of the more popular articles that have been featured during that period. I have summerised them by type and included a rough word guide, so you know what you are getting. I hope you enjoy the summary. If its in-depth investigative reasearch you into, breaking news, opinion or liberal ideas, its all here. Have a read and, if you like it, recommend it to others.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

25 June 2012

How Sadtu and the SACE have damaged accountability in SA education

FEATURE: The South African Council for Educators is the primary institution charged with upholding accountability in South African education. It does so by enforcing a Code of Professional Ethics for educators. Or, at least, that is what it is supposed to do. In truth, however, it has effectively fired just 97 educators in 12 years. At the heart of the problem is Sadtu, which dominates the SACE council and ethics committee. Its influence, together with the SACE’s wrongheaded approach, has rendered educator accountability in South African education a farce. Read on to see how.

Read the rest of this entry »

3 Comments

21 June 2012

The relationship between hope and time

ARTICLE: You don’t often think about it this way but hope is actually all about how you understand time. If you have hope, with it you have perspective and the idea that the future might be better. In the other direction, if one has no hope, there is no prospect of a better future and so time and perspective are reduced to contemporary concerns. There is only the here and now and the need to overcome the challenge that currently exists right before your eyes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

20 June 2012

Fresh off Twitter: How the ANC in eThekwini abuse public money

FEATURE: Not more than an hour ago there was a huge argument between the DA and the ANC in the eThekwini council over a proposal to send an under 15 soccer team to South Korea: the ANC said two councillors should accompany them, then, when the DA opposed the idea, increased the number to five, unilaterally voted in support of their amendment and ignored a legal opinion in doing so. Here is an account of the story as it happened in council and told through the Tweets of three young DA councillors: Warwick Chapman, Mbali Ntuli and Nicole Graham.

Read the rest of this entry »

3 Comments

19 June 2012

VIDEO: A Youth Wage Subsidy now!

VIDEO: Here is a great video from the DA Youth, explaining what a Youth Wage Subsidy is and the difference it would make to the lives of young, unemployed South Africans. I am not sure why it has not been more widely circulated but it is well worth a look at. Some good interviews with some people affected and shots of the DA rally in favour of the subsidy, which Cosatu reduced to a violent and bloody mess. Check it out.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

19 June 2012

Phiyega’s gallery of gobbledegook

FEATURE: The new police commissioner, Mangwashi Phiyega, has a wonderful way with words. Never before has a senior member of civil service squeezed so many metaphors and idioms into so little content. Is she the police’s answer to Pieter de Villiers? In order to make sure they are all captured for posterity and I am starting a running archive of her best sayings. Here it is.

Read the rest of this entry »

6 Comments

19 June 2012

On patriarchy

SERIES: The Thing About is a weekly Business Day column designed to discuss democratic ideas, ideals, values and principles from a liberal perspective. Today, a look at the relationship between patriarchy and dignity. Why is it that a patriarch will so easily feel their dignity has been impugned? The answer has to do with the assumption that they bear no responsibility for upholding it in the first place.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

18 June 2012

Cyril Ramaphosa on the need for an independent SABC, in 1992

SERIES: From the Archives aims to put forward the odd reminder that, more often than not, history is merely repeating itself. In all likelihood, somewhere, someone has already experienced and commented on those all-consuming issues that appear to have materialised only yesterday. Here follows a 1992 speech by Cyril Ramaphosa, about how important an independent SABC was and how the National Party had abused the public broadcaster to serve its own political ends. 20 years later and there is a case to be made South Africa has yet to actually experience an independent SABC.

Read the rest of this entry »

3 Comments

17 June 2012

South Africa is not Russia

ARTICLE: Wilmot James has written an article on Blade Nzimande and the SACP for the City Press, which I have republished in full here. It is a pertinent follow-up to the article I wrote about Jeremy Cronin a week or so ago and asks important questions about some of the more dubious positions the SACP has adopted in the past. City Press notes that the SACP failed to meet the deadline to respond to Wilmot.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

15 June 2012

The ANC and John Dugard: Feeding the hand it bites

FEATURE: This April past President Zuma awarded John Dugard the national order of the Baobab. It was a recognition well deserved; John Dugard’s contribution to South African jurisprudence is extraordinary. Likewise, however, it was a deeply hypocritical gesture. The ANC has for years spurned Dugard, blocking his appointment to many key positions, including the Constitutional Court. But that is the nature of nationalism: to fete the very things it despises. Here follows a Business Day article I wrote on this subject this week.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

14 June 2012

The DA’s 2006 bill to hold unions accountable

SERIES: The instantaneous and dramatic nature of current affairs lends itself to a kind of historical amnesia, one where the captivating nature of those things unfolding today, causes one to forget the bigger picture. From the Archives aims to put forward the odd reminder that, more often than not, history is merely repeating itself. In all likelihood, somewhere, someone has already experienced and commented on those all-consuming issues that appear to have materialised only yesterday. Today, the DA’s 2006 Private Members Bill designed to hold unions accountable for any damage caused during striking, an idea recently endorsed by the Constitutional Court.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

13 June 2012

An analysis of the Press Ombudsman’s rulings: The best and worst

FEATURE: Which newspapers in South Africa have the most complaints made to the Press Ombudsman upheld against them? In order to answer this question, I analysed all of the last three years worth of rulings on the Ombudsman’s website and categorised them by paper. Want to see who fares best and who fares worst? It is a crude analysis but, I believe, it does offer some valuable insights. For all the answers, read on.

Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments

12 June 2012

On gossip

SERIES: The Thing About is a weekly Business Day column designed to discuss democratic ideas, ideals, values and principles from a liberal perspective. Gossip and politics seem to be inseparable, so it is worth trying to understand gossip a bit better and the kind of role it plays for many in political life – and it’s not a pleasant one. Here, then, is why those who deal predominantly in gossip are not to be trusted.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

11 June 2012

How the WC Office of the Premier scored best in PSC report

FEATURE: The Public Service Commission recently published a report assessing the performance of the nine Offices of the Premier. The only Office of the Premier not run by the ANC – in the Western Cape – came out on top. What follows is a summary of that report and a more detailed look at how the DA-run Western Cape Office of the Premier faired. There is some critical information in this article and some invaluable statistics. All in all, further proof that, where the DA governs, it delivers better services than the ANC, to more people.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

8 June 2012

South Africa and the 1994 memory block

FEATURE: There is a strong case to be made that contemporary South African history – post 1994 – is subject to some kind of collective memory block. So horrific was apartheid, we have lost the ability properly to put current affairs in their full perspective. Inevitably any event is gauged, not against the principles that define freedom, but those gross violations suffered in the past. Remembering the past is vital but it should never blur our ability to recognise those contemporary threats to our civil liberties.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

8 June 2012

The ANC and the history of Mao’s infamous quote

SERIES: My article yesterday, on Jeremy Cronin and his amoral hypocrisy, seems to have elicited some significant interest in this subject. It surely is a curious fact that socialism and those who advocate it enjoy next to no moral scrutiny for the blood-soaked history they represent. Indeed, they seemingly operate in an entirely ahistorial environment. So much so, they routinely evoke socialist rhetoric with no appreciation for what it represents. Mao’s ‘let a thousand flowers bloom’ quote is a great example. Here follows an article from the archives, which looks at the way this quote is misused by the alliance. Cronin accused ‘pseudo liberals’ of ‘historical illetracy’, time to take a look in the mirror I say.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

7 June 2012

The mischievous deviousness of Jeremy Cronin

FEATURE: Jeremy Cronin, along with a great many other people in the alliance, constantly suggest liberalism was the source of much wrong in South Africa’s past, and should therefore be dismissed. They are wrong on the facts. But that’s not the point. If it’s historical injustice the SACP wants to speak out against, it should take a look in the mirror – because socialism is responsible for mass murder on an unprecendeted scale. If anyone has some explaining to do, its the SACP. And someone should ask them to start.

Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments

7 June 2012

Some curious facts from a ballooning presidency

ARTICLE: It is often stated that the ANC is centralising power in the presidency. But what do the facts say? One way to find out is to look at its annual reports over time, which list the number of staff it employs. Sure enough, the evidence illustrates it is an ever-increasing bureaucracy. In fact, it has more than doubled in size over the last nine years. With that has come an increase in support staff, a great many of whom are dedicated to comfort rather than policy.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

6 June 2012

Why difference is important

ARTICLE: Every single person on this planet is different in some way unique to them. Most people have one of two responses to that: either it is the source of insecurity or pride. For those who feel uncomfortable with difference, comfort is found in conformity. That is no bad thing, but when those same people take that fear to an extreme level and try to outlaw difference in others, in order that everyone might be the same, that is not only a sure path to authoritarianism but to misunderstand the very value and wonder of difference itself.

Read the rest of this entry »

3 Comments

5 June 2012

On dignity

SERIES: The Thing About is a weekly Business Day column designed to discuss democratic ideas, ideals, values and principles from a liberal perspective. Today, a look at the idea of dignity. It is often assumed, indeed, the idea is often promoted that, dignity is an entitlement. That is wrong. One is in entitled to the conditions necessary for one to be able to act in a dignified manner, but whether or not one uses the opportunity, well, that is entirely an issue of personal responsibility.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

4 June 2012

The ANC’s intolerant attitude to tolerance

SERIES: The instantaneous and dramatic nature of current affairs lends itself to a kind of historical amnesia, one where the captivating nature of those things unfolding today, causes one to forget the bigger picture. From the Archives aims to put forward the odd reminder that, more often than not, history is merely repeating itself. In all likelihood, somewhere, someone has already experienced and commented on those all-consuming issues that appear to have materialised only yesterday. Today, a trip back to 2005 and an illustration of the ANC’s intolerant attitude to tolerance; one which its more recent response to The Spear suggests has only become stronger with time.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

1 June 2012

FPB: Inside Politics declines to censor The Spear

FEATURE: The Film and Publications Board (FPB) has attempted to censor The Spear, by giving it a 16N rating, for nudity. It has stated that it will attempt to enforce this rating by approaching internet service providers. Inside Politics declines to censor the picture of The Spear on this blog. It shall stay up, as is. The full reasoning behind that decision follows in the article below.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

1 June 2012

What is pornography?

FEATURE: The films and publications board has decided to classify Brett Murray’s The Spear as pornographic. The artwork has been given an age restriction of 16N, the aim of the classification is to prevent individuals under the age of sixteen from seeing the work. In order to come to grips with the board’s decision, it is vital for us understand what is meant by the term pornography.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

31 May 2012

An Open Letter: Why The Spear is staying up on Inside Politics

FEATURE: Over the past 48 hours a series of people and institutions once dedicated to freedom of expression and tolerance have surrendered their position on The Spear in the face of intimidation and bullying. In each case, an emotional justification has been offered. In many cases it has been accepted, for bullying is felt as intimidation not by the victim alone. I am not taking down The Spear from Inside Politics. What follows is an open letter and explanation as to why.

Read the rest of this entry »

3 Comments

30 May 2012

Will the ANCWL back Jacob Zuma at Mangaung?

FEATURE: In 2007 and despite much public promising that it would seek to have a woman in the ANC presidency, the ANC woman’s league hypocritically capitulated and supported Jacob Zuma for president. So, what will it do this time round, at Mangaung? What follows is a retrospective, setting out what happened in 2007 and how, repeatedly, the ANCWL would come out on the wrong side of any debate that had at its heart the interests of women.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

30 May 2012

First world ambitions, third world realities

SERIES: The instantaneous and dramatic nature of current affairs lends itself to a kind of historical amnesia, one where the captivating nature of those things unfolding today, causes one to forget the bigger picture. From the Archives aims to put forward the odd reminder that, more often than not, history is merely repeating itself. In all likelihood, somewhere, someone has already experienced and commented on those all-consuming issues that appear to have materialised only yesterday. Today a 2008 article on copper cable theft, Eskom advertising and how first world ambitions and third world realities often meet in rather brutal fashion in South Africa.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

29 May 2012

Mpumalanga declares God the spiritual leader of province

FEATURE: According to the news publication Mpumalanga Today, Mpumalanga Provincial education MEC Reginah Mhaule has signed an agreement on behalf the provincial government dedicating the province to the Christian God and recognising him as the spiritual leader of the province. If the story is true, it is profoundly undemocratic and runs directly against the constitution, which defines South Africa as a secular state and confines the practice of any religion to a strictly private affair.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

29 May 2012

On exaggeration

SERIES: The Thing About is a weekly Business Day column designed to discuss democratic ideas, ideals, values and principles from a liberal perspective. What role does exaggeration play in public discourse? For the most part, a problematic one. Very often one’s instinict in countering exaggeration is to use some kind of greater exaggeration in the other direction. And, before you know it, everything is exaggerated and a state of hysteria exists.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

28 May 2012

More than 1 in 3 calls to SAPS police stations go unanswered

FEATURE: There are 1 116 police stations listed on the South African Police Services website. For each police station listed there is a telephone number. But do they work? And, if they do work, are they answered? In an attempt to find out, I phoned all 1 116. What follows is a summary of what I found, plus a list of every number called. The results suggest there is a profound problem and, if it’s a quick response you are looking for in an emergency – your chances of getting one aren’t too good.

Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments

26 May 2012

‘The Spear’ and the silence of the National Arts Council

FEATURE: The National Arts Council is legally required, among other things, to “uphold and promote the right of any person to freedom in the practice of the arts”. Yet on ‘The Spear’ we have heard not a word from it. How is that possible? How is an entire organisation dedicated to upholding, protecting and promoting the rights of artists able to sit idly by while the right to freedom of artistic expression is under such a direct and wide-ranging assault? It is an indictment and there should be consequences.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

23 May 2012

SASCO: unaccountable menace

FEATURE: The following article appears as an editorial in the May 2012 edition of ‘In Our Future’, a publication produced by DASO UCT. It deals with the South African Students Congress which, for years, has been a menace to good student governance across the country. As is its want, SASCO’s reaction to the article has been as predictable as it has been deplorable, with the usual volley of threats and intimidation. Nevertheless, the facts remain. It’s an important read, and gives you some insight into the way SASCO – the ANCYL of university politics – behaves, by focusing on one particular incident and SASCO’s response to it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

22 May 2012

On power

SERIES: The Thing About is a weekly Business Day column designed to discuss democratic ideas, ideals, values and principles from a liberal perspective. Today a look at the idea of power and how those in close proximity to it, react to it. For those who seek it out for its own sake, its effect can be dangerous but, rather than outright abuse, it lends itself to maniuplation – of information and behaviour.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

21 May 2012

Albie Sachs on South African art in 2000

SERIES: A good quote can hold within it a thousand separate insights, just as surely as some poorly constructed thought can reveal someone as a fool. Quotable Quotes looks at what is said, what was said and, on occasion, how the two compare. In this edition, a quote from 2000, from former ANC stalwart and Justice Albie Sachs about South African art and how it was independent of political hegemony and correctness; an appraisal that stands in stark contrast to the ANC’s recent response to ‘The Spear’.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

21 May 2012

An essay on mediocrity

SERIES: One from the archives. What follows below is a 2009 essay I wrote on the nature and effect of mediocrity on a society. How does what is set out in the essay apply to South Africa? Are we a society caught in its warm embrace? There can be little doubt that its influence is powerful, the question is: is it so well-entrenched its effect cannot be reversed? Perhaps if we understood it a little better, we would be better equipped to counter the pervasive way in which it seeps into public life.

Read the rest of this entry »

9 Comments

20 May 2012

The painting, the institution and the individual

FEATURE: The various responses to the painting of Jacob Zuma constantly confuse public office with the behaviour of the individual holding that office – the assumption is that because someone represents an institution they automatically get all the public respect associated with it. The latest is a statement by Zuma’s children. This is, of course, wrong. In fact, quite the opposite is true. In this short piece, I explain why.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

18 May 2012

The Jacob Zuma painting and the idea of respect

ARTICLE: Much has already been made of the Jacob Zuma painting and the idea of respect. The argument goes like this: Jacob Zuma is the President, he should be respected. Therefore, the painting should be removed. That ‘argument’ is often used in South Africa. Routinely we fundamentally misunderstand what respect is. We think it is something that can be demanded, not earned. But the moment you accept that line of thinking, you are on a sure path to some or other anti-democratic state of affairs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

17 May 2012

The painting of President Zuma

PICTURE: Today the ANC released a statement about a painting of President Zuma by artist by Brett Murray which, among other things, says: “We have this morning instructed our lawyers to approach our courts to compel Brett Murray and Goodman Gallery to remove the portrait from display as well as from their website and destroy all printed promotional material. We have also detected that this distasteful and vulgar portrait of the President has been displayed on a weekend newspaper and its website, we again have instructed our lawyers to request the said newspaper to remove the portrait from their website.” Well, in support of the constitutional right to free expression and in opposition to the ANC’s tyrannical attitude, here is the painting in question.

Read the rest of this entry »

17 May 2012

Politics and innovation

FEATURE: Innovation is one of those words frequently used but less frequently thought through. In politics in particular, it is used almost exclusively with regards to policy. That is good and necessary, but what about political parties themselves, and the ideologies they espouse? Why is innovation an important principle in a democracy? Why should it be promoted and protected, and what are its benefits? In the short paper below I look at the idea and why it is important.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

15 May 2012

The media’s stony silence on racism concerning the DA

FEATURE: Here is a question: Is Lindiwe Mazibuko a ‘house nigger’? That might seem like a grotesque enquiry but it is one that has been openly asked of her on Twitter. That together with a myriad other forms of racial abuse and hatred. But is it met with the same intensity of outrage that follows any perceived slight on the DA’s part? Not a chance. DA public representatives, and its black members in particular, are routinely labeled everything from ‘darkie’ to ‘kaffir’. My question is, what is the media going to do about it?

Read the rest of this entry »

15 May 2012

On low self esteem

SERIES: The Thing About is a weekly Business Day column designed to discuss democratic ideas, ideals, values and principles from a liberal perspective. What are the effects of low self esteem? It is a permanent force in our lives. Unrestrained its impact on our approach to control can be dramatic. On the one hand, driving a desire for power and respect; on the other, it is able to reduce someone to a victim, unable to act and inhibited by self doubt.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

14 May 2012

Is the ANC its own harshest critic?

FEATURE: President Zuma’s election as ANC President ushered in a new era in ANC politics. Gone were the days of tight party discipline and the seemingly unified, focused communication that defined Mbeki’s reign. Now it openly and, on a regular basis, criticises itself – often in the harshest terms. Unfortunately, it has little to do with improvement and everything to do with political posturing and so, in the run-up to Mangaung, we can expect more of it, not less.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment

13 May 2012

The Western Cape’s response to draft Public Protector report

FEATURE: Below I have posted the Western Cape Government’s response to those stories carried in today’s press on the Public Protector’s draft report on the TBWA communications tender, undertaken by the Western Cape Government. It includes a statement from Western Cape Premier and Democratic Alliance Leader Helen Zille, followed by a legal opinion on the veracity of the draft report from senior counsel, Advocate Geoff Budlender.

Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments

11 May 2012

The DA’s 2012 Federal Congress: 1

SERIES: This year the DA will be holding its Federal Congress, the party’s highest decision-making body. I thought, as a helpful guide for those interested, in the press and the party alike, in the run-up to the Congress I would set out the basic facts as to how it will work and what will happen at it. Here then is the first installment in that series, including the date, who can attend and where it will be held. Over the coming months I’ll bring you more information as and when it becomes available.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a comment