Quote of the week
Trump’s electoral fiction floats free of verifiable reality. It is defended not so much by facts as by claims that someone else has made some claims. The sensibility is that something must be wrong because I feel it to be wrong, and I know others feel the same way. When political leaders such as Ted Cruz or Jim Jordan spoke like this, what they meant was: You believe my lies, which compels me to repeat them. Social media provides an infinity of apparent evidence for any conviction, especially one seemingly held by a president.
The New York Times
Malema’s rights to freedom of movement and assembly have undoubtedly been infringed. The decision to charge him a week before the opening of ANC leadership nominations does not merely look like an example of selective prosecution, it appears to be a celebration of it. It seems to be a deliberate and shocking demonstration of the capacity of Zuma’s faction to institute — and also to suspend — police investigations and criminal prosecutions. Moyo’s conclusion is that there is “clearly more than enough on the horizon to warrant putting South Africa on a Sadc security watch list — without ruling out (later) placing the beleaguered country on the agenda of the (Sadc) Organ Troika”. – Anthony Butler in Business Day
