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/ 12 September 2008
The lobbying in favour of the ”political deal” is intense; it is happening on all fronts.
Consensus in the ruling tripartite alliance, the private sector and parts of the intelligentsia are building towards the need for a deal of some sort.
Sotyu proclaimed that the Scorpions would be dissolved because the ANC had decided to do so, despite public hearings into the issue.
The proceedings of the Hlophe hearing must not be distorted by TV cameras and lights.
A danger of the upcoming recession/depression is that it will nip in the bud the new thirst for innovation and radical thinking from business leaders.
A blend of the two camps in the ANC might avert its sinking into the lowest form of rule.
The US presidential hopeful is a great improvement on the current leadership, but just how progressive he might be remains to be seen.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back on to the field, yet more light is shed on Hansie Cronje and the extraordinary abuse of power that was his ultimate undoing.
In politics, as in life, chickens usually come home to roost. Fourteen years of failure in leadership and management at the Department of Home Affairs. Nine years of self-indulgent denialism in the Presidency. Six months of Umshini Wami and the violence and human rights promiscuity it implies — not to mention the failure in intelligence.
If there was ever a period that so ably demonstrated the febrile nature of politics it has been the past week or two. As Jacob Zuma strode into Downing Street after having met with the British prime minister, looking surprisingly at ease in the media glare, Thabo Mbeki was quietly meeting King Mswati III which, with all due respect to the Swazi monarch, pretty much sums up the state of play: Zuma on the ascendant, Mbeki on the slide.