I almost fell off my chair laughing when I read yesterday that the Democratic Alliance has warned that politicising the office of the Public Protector undermined the “brilliant” work it has done. The Cape Times reported that the DA’s defence of Adv Thuli Madonsela comes in the wake of an attack on her by the ANC Youth League [...]
Posts under ‘DA’
On by-election results
The most recent local government by-election results (from elections held on 21 July) should at the very least concern political strategists of the governing ANC. A few interesting trends have been confirmed by these results.
First, the ANC’s support amongst colored voters in the Western Cape – even in rural areas – has collapsed dramatically. The ANC [...]
Nyanda: Maybe immoral AND illegal after all
It is rather difficult to get hold of a copy of the Ministerial Handbook (also known as A Handbook for Members of the Executive and Presiding Officers). I searched the Internet for more than an hour yesterday (which included a search on the government’s own website as well as several legal databases) – all to no avail.
Those Ministers [...]
Discrimination is indivisible
Back in the heady days after the 1994 election South Africa professed to base its foreign policy on human rights principles. When the Nigerian government executed activist and environmental journalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nelson Mandela called it a “heinous act”. But Thabo Mbeki soon put a stop to such folly, aligning South Africa instead with the [...]
Human Rights Commission pro-poor stance must be applauded
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) were lambasted by DA leader Helen Zille for finding that the City of Cape Town had violated the dignity of residents of Makhaza by not enclosing the toilets it had provided to them and for not adequately consulting with the community about the issue. Zille said in an [...]
Another twist in Zuma corruption case?
Lawyers for President Jacob Zuma and the NPA are deploying all the technical legal arguments at their disposal to try and prevent the DA from obtaining all the documents on which the Acting Natonal Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Mokothedi Mpshe, relied when he made the decision to drop all charges against President Jacob Zuma. [...]
On by-elections and disillusionment with the ANC
Please excuse me while I crunch the latest by-election result numbers – I love this geeky kind of stuff. I decided to have a look at the results after the ANC seemed to have gotten a big fright this week, losing two by-election in the Western Cape to the DA.
The most interesting results came out [...]
Not the South of France
Several years ago I attended a conference where a French academic delivered a paper on the etiquette of soliciting anonymous sex in public toilets in the South of France. I listened in amazement as the academic gave a rather erudite and learned presentation (relying on the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault), in which he [...]
Why do I have to drive past Oswald Pirow Drive?
I have never understood why some South Africans get so upset when the names of towns, suburbs, streets, rivers and dams are changed. What does it matter whether we call it “Pretoria” or ”Tswane” when there are so much more pressing problems facing our country and when severe social and economic injustices continue all around us for everyone to [...]
Radebe cannot tell Simelane what to do
What can be done about Menzi Simelane, the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) who seems to be ”restructuring” the NPA into a big mess? Mr Simelane seems to have a rather unique management style: he seems to have a sharp eye for identifying all the individuals and units doing their jobs properly, then he removes them from [...]
