LETTER: Hawks need sharp talons
Spare a thought for the new Hawks boss, Godfrey Lebeya, as he prepares for what will have to be a comprehensive clean-out of the corrupt and those who attempted to capture the state. Not only does President Cyril Ramaphosa profess (or is it feign?) inexplicable ignorance of the extent of state capture, he has chosen […]
A woefully inadequate strategy to fight corruption and State Capture
As the process of “graduating into something terminal” due to rampant corruption is at an advanced stage, it is appropriate and timely to consider, with finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, the need for a manifesto for curing corruption, or at least tackling it in the manner required by the highest court in the land. Shortly after […]
Trevor Manuel’s Moseneke/Mogoeng Masterclass Moment Missed
Veteran of the Struggle and former Cabinet minister under every former president in the new SA, Trevor Manuel, was recently given the honour of delivering the Thabo Makgoba lecture at the University of the Western Cape. He did not disappoint. Much has been made of his assertion from the podium that the Zuma era was […]
CPS – a nest of Cobras, Puff adders and Skaapstekers
Weary SA taxpayers will be familiar with the characteristics of the three snakes whose names mirror the acronym of Cash Paymaster Services, the rapacious administrator, for now, of grant payments on behalf of the South African Social Security Agency. A spitting cobra is particularly venomous, the puff adder, despite its deceptive girth, strikes faster than […]
Abrahams has two options
Now that more than a glass and a half of Estina Dairy milk has been spilt by the National Prosecuting Authority during its successive Gupta-related litigious setbacks, it is time for Shaun Abrahams to reconsider his position as Jacob Zuma’s choice for appointment as national director of public prosecutions. Abrahams has two options: first, and […]
Twenty-four years of constitutional democracy
Those long and snaky queues of all South Africans, who formed them in splendid rainbow array on 27 April 1994 at the polling stations set up for the first universal suffrage national election ever held in SA, have become emblematic of the hopes and aspirations of the nation “united in its diversity” and in its […]
Comment on the Commentariat: Cyril’s concomitant conundrums
It appears from recent editions of Daily Maverick that Richard Poplak, a.k.a. TRAINSPOTTER, is a “glass half empty” man, while his colleague Stephen Grootes is of the decidedly “glass half full” persuasion, when it comes to the analysis of, and prognostications on, the future trajectory of the Ramaphosa presidency. A closer look at the glass […]
LETTER: Gigaba not fit for office
The Afrikaans idiom “benoude katte maak benoude spronge” is not adequately translated into English as “fortune favours the brave”. The state of panic essential to the actions of the proverbial cat is, however, brought to mind by the latest concoction dished up on behalf of beleaguered Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba. A lateral-thinking legal mind […]
The ANC must swallow its own bitter medicine
CAPE TOWN — In this timely piece, Paul Hoffman, founder of Accountability Now, outlines the broad systemic change the ANC needs to make to once more become a credible political party – given how deeply the rot set in over the Zuma years. Drawing on statements by the party’s own NEC, Archbishop of Cape Town […]
Green shoots on the tree of constitutionalism
The question which may burn the green shoots of constitutionalism to cinders is whether the political will can be generated for the ANC to take the strong medicine of accountability for its institutional misdemeanours or “sins of incumbency” as they are sometimes called. March was a good month for optimists in SA who have concerns […]
