We learn from history that we don't learn from history!
Desmond TutuTags: history desmond-tutu south-africa
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that's the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing. Nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him if he gives too much.
Alan PatonTags: africa south-africa alan-paton cry-the-beloved-country
Writing is making sense of life. You work your whole life and perhaps you've made sense of one small area.
Nadine GordimerTags: writing south-africa apartheid nadine-gordimer
It's very difficult not to come across as a white supremacist when there are so many black inferiorists around.
David BullardTags: racism south-africa white-supremacy
There is one key area in which Zuma has made no attempt at reconciliation whatsoever: criminal justice and security. The ministers of justice, defence, intelligence (now called 'state security' in a throwback to both apartheid and the ANC's old Stalinist past), police and communications are all die-hard Zuma loyalists. Whatever their line functions, they will also play the role they have played so ably to date: keeping Zuma out of court—and making sure the state serves Zuma as it once did Mbeki.
Mark GevisserTags: justice crime police south-africa reconciliation national-security 2009 criminal-justice apartheid communications stalinism african-national-congress cronyism jacob-zuma minister-of-state-security thabo-mbeki
What in Mandela was seen as an almost saintly ability to conciliate could, in a lesser man, be read as weak-kneed populism.
Mark GevisserTags: populism south-africa nelson-mandela 2009 jacob-zuma conciliation
Even if Zuma was to develop the authoritarian impulses of a Mugabe, he would be checked—not least by his own party, which set a continental precedent by ousting Thabo Mbeki in 2007, after it felt he had outstayed his welcome by seeking a third term as party president. The ANC appears to have set itself against that deathtrap of African democracy: the ruler for life.
Mark GevisserTags: democracy africa authoritarianism south-africa 2009 zimbabwe african-national-congress jacob-zuma 2007 robert-mugabe
Remember one thing as South Africa prepares to go to the polls this week and the world grapples with the ascendancy of the African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma: South Africa is not Zimbabwe.
In South Africa, no one doubts that Wednesday's elections will be free and fair. While there is an unacceptable degree of government corruption, there is no evidence of the wholesale kleptocracy of Robert Mugabe's elite. While there has been the abuse of the organs of state by the ruling ANC, there is not the state terror of Mugabe's Zanu-PF. And while there is a clear left bias to Zuma's ANC, there is no suggestion of the kind of voluntarist experimentation that has brought Zimbabwe to its knees.
Tags: politics elections corruption government south-africa leftism 2009 zimbabwe african-national-congress jacob-zuma robert-mugabe kleptocracy sa-general-election-2009 voluntarism zanu-pf
This week, Zuma was quoted as saying, 'When the British came to our country, they said everything we are doing was barbaric, was wrong, inferior in whatever way.' But the serious critique of Zuma is not about who is a barbarian and who is civilised. It is about good governance, and this is a universal value, as relevant to an African village as it is to Westminster. If you are unable to keep your appetites in check, you are inevitably going to live beyond your means. And this means you are going to become vulnerable to patronage and even corruption. That is why Jacob Zuma's 'polygamy' is his achilles heel.
Mark GevisserTags: politics self-control africa sex civilisation corruption racism south-africa britain british polygamy 2010 jacob-zuma culture-of-africa good-governance patronage superiority-complex westminster
I thought I was getting away from politics for a while. But I now realise that the vuvuzela is to these World Cup blogs what Julius Malema is to my politics columns: a noisy, but sadly unavoidable irritant. With both Malema and the vuvuzela, their importance is far overstated. Malema: South Africa's Robert Mugabe? I think not. The vuvuzela: an archetypal symbol of 'African culture?' For African civilisation's sake, I seriously hope not.
Both are getting far too much airtime than they deserve. Both have thrust themselves on to the world stage through a combination of hot air and raucous bluster. Both amuse and enervate in roughly equal measure. And both are equally harmless in and of themselves — though in Malema's case, it is the political tendency that he represents, and the right-wing interests that lie behind his diatribes that is dangerous. With the vuvu I doubt if there are such nefarious interests behind the scenes; it may upset the delicate ears of the middle classes, both here and at the BBC, but I suspect that South Africa's democracy will not be imperilled by a mass-produced plastic horn.
Tags: politics nationalism democracy africa civilisation media culture fascism south-africa attention atmosphere crowds bbc 2010 robert-mugabe culture-of-africa 2010-fifa-world-cup alarmism association-football culture-of-south-africa julius-malema right-wingers vuvuzelas
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