The onslaught of the oligarchs: How global influences shape South African governance
Your job as a voter is to stop giving away your government to the richest bidder. Not every piece of technology is your friend.
Exposing the aid ideological trap
Foreign aid is often wrapped up in ideological strangleholds. It has an ownership expectation that extends way beyond the value of the aid.
The problem with privilege
‘My wish for 2025 is to end the power of privilege. Everywhere around us, we see structural and psychological privilege forced in our faces. ’
There’s room in South Africa for all
‘The year ends with a crisp summary: South Africans are gatvol of whiny, daft, disruptive and doomsday politicians. We have begun to win the battle over the voices of bellicose politicians,’ writes Lorenzo A Davids
The system is broken. Say it.
‘Look at the Cape Flats, a landscape filled with religious structures, human potential and aid organisations. Yet any predictive data will tell you that its status as a landscape defined by poverty will be here for another 300 years. ’
We are tired of shallow power
‘With the latest statistics released by the Department of Police and the Western Cape’s Department of Police Oversight and Community Safety, no child is safe in the Western Cape. ’
It’s time to stop the politics of disdain
COLUMN: ‘The rising discomfort of the things we are not saying is seen in the practice of the politics of disdain in South Africa,’ writes Lorenzo A Davids.
The scary rise of saviours to replace failed politicians
‘Global politics has moved beyond the idea that traditional democracies are the place of sensible politics. It has aggressively moved towards a conservative nationalism, carelessly also called patriotism. ’
America’s long walk to manipulation
Lorenzo A Davids writes that the land of the free and the home of the brave is no more. Overrun by the delusional and fearful, it has sold its soul to megalomaniacs and succumbed to oligarchal manipulation.
A US election of insults, not policy
Lorenzo A Davids writes: ‘Watching the 2024 US election campaign is like watching a celebrity roasting. Insults, not policy, flood the content of every election speech. ’
South Africa needs a future we can believe in
COLUMN: Lorenzo A Davids writes that people want roads fixed, water to drink and bread to eat. They do not have the patience to listen to our million rand-salaried politicians debate the ideological merits of their political offering.
The fatigue of expired rhetoric
COLUMN: Lorenzo A Davids writes that the ANC, despite the staggering defeat it received in May 2024, appears to be unable to wake up from its comatose state, and that the party is stuck in a post-power vacuum, with schizophrenia-filled rhetoric.
The changing political seasons
COLUMN: ‘The only way out of the Government of National Unity is for parties to start cannibalising each other or being taken over by stealth. No one is leaving the GNU on a matter of principle,’ writes Lorenzo A Davids.
The right turn that leads to a dead-end
COLUMN: Lorenzo A Davids writes that South Africa, post-May 2024, is caught in a proverbial traffic circle where ‘yield to the right’ is the law of the land.
The demons of our history continuously wage war on necessary frameworks to secure our future
COLUMN: Great democracies are founded upon three well-known established concepts: a just constitution, the rule of law, and a fundamental quality called patience.
The necessary dialogues about democracy
COLUMN: ‘South Africa is emerging as an interesting case study on how to build a country. Or should that be, how not to build a country?’ asks Lorenzo A Davids
DA caught in fly-fishing net?
COLUMN: ‘The two senior parties in the GNU have been in constant weekly fights with each other. From Tshwane to the Bela Bill to cadre deployment, tensions are loading within the GNU. ’
Reimagining Black Freedom in South Africa
COLUMN: ‘. . . It is now time for black people to tear up the white permission slip by which they are authorised to live, speak and participate. It is now time for black people in power everywhere to visibly address the fears, futures, aspirations and assets of black people. ’
The failure of the Western Cape Government
COLUMN: ‘After Friday’s signing of the Western Cape Co-operations Agreement for Safety and Policing and the release of the latest crime statistics, we are left with an appalling sense that our politicians are being purely performative. . . ’ writes Lorenzo A Davids.
South Africa still in danger of ‘Guptarisation’
South Africa is drifting into a dangerous period. Wearing large blinkers dished out by politicians and experiencing the relief of having survived a collapsed parliament, its citizens are not fully informed of three huge threats.
Quo Vadis: Political Power vs Political Maturity
‘The ANC under President Ramaphosa has no real centre of power any more. Factional loyalties are destroying it from the inside. For Zuma, MK is the ideal vehicle to get vengeance’
Are we applauding against our better judgement?
#AnotherVoice: ‘Caught up in a culture of three-word dramatic headlines, 10-second sound bites, two-minute interviews and a discombobulation of long-form writing, we suffer the consequence of polluted messages that become the new reality. ’
DA wrests narrative control from ANC
“The ANC appears to have given up all desire to govern, relishing rather in talk shops and the relief that some of its cadres still have jobs. ”
Minister Dean Macpherson and deputy Sihle Zikalala will test unity of GNU
Lorenzo A Davids writes that the litmus test on the well-being of the Government of National Unity is to monitor the relationship between Sihle Zikalala and Dean Macpherson.
GNU’s reality built on ‘alternative facts’
‘In his Opening of Parliament Address last week, the President repeated several unfulfilled promises contained in his previous State of the Nation Addresses. The seriousness with which he delivered them does not make those promises worthy of belief. ’