An erudite and astute summation of the political and moral chaos engulfing our small corner of life on this planet. I surmise that as the process of the so called "Ramaphosa quasi ANC Justice" plays out in the months ahead, few will pay a price, and unfortunately the kingpins will never be brought to book. Guptagate has conveniently and timeously reared its head, it would be a very large pill to swallow if that was yet not another orchestrated event which has been, in any event, badly miscalculated to draw attention away.
One would be remiss not taking into account the internal factional long knives that are out and those that will be surely be unsheathed to settle political scores as never before witnessed in our young democracy, and that includes the turmoil of the Zuma years. The Fraser revelation is just the tip of the iceberg, there must be many skeletons to pull a "jack in the box" as we could ever dream of, too much money and resources were re-appropriated for that not to happen, never a dull moment is SA politics and I would hate to live anywhere else on this planet, just so much continually happening, what a view we have.
I do hope the new arrival brings as much happiness and love into your family as ours have into ours....God Bless and Take Care
I'm having real trouble understanding Böhmke's point. (To be clear, I think this is my failing, and not his.) Is it that the State is doing the ANC's dirty work for it, by imposing discipline by proxy? That is, it forces the ANC's hand when it indicts Ramaphosa, meaning he *must* step-aside, whereas in the absence of such an indictment, the ANC itself would be left to clean house itself?
If I'm understanding this right, I have two questions:
1) Why would you expect the ANC to clean house for any principled reason - any reason at all, in fact, beyond factionalism and a power grab? (Why you would expect a political party in even a squeaky-clean, by-the-book country to do the same in 100% of cases is a related question.)
2) Is it necessarily a problem that the state has primacy over the ANC? In fact, should that not be the case? If the objection is that the state can't be trusted either, well, A. no shit, and B. we can politely call Fraser's moment in the limelight an act of 'prosecutorial discretion' (yes, yes, he's not a prosecutor, but you know what I mean) and view it in the same light as whisteblowing elsewhere in the world. It's seldom an act of pure altruism. It's often, in fact mostly, done for self-preservation or to take out a troublesome enemy.
I don't know. Seriously, I don't. Böhmke writes above my capacity to understand sometimes. But I read his latest piece as a "woah, careful there fellas - we wouldn't want something like the state getting involved in something as big and important as the ANC!" piece and wonder if he remembers that he's writing about the fate of South Africa and not that of Luthuli House.
'English Liberalism' died at the dawn of the 20th century, as Progressives, or Social Democrats, co-opted the label... and with it consigned real liberal history to the dustbin.
Most white, middle-class South Africans have been swept up in this conflation.
As usual, a good analysis Rob. I daresay we will muddle along as we have for 450 years, unless we get swept away by the demographic tsunami that may roll in from the North in the coming decades. Congratulations on your pending pater status - parenthood is great for the soul.
An erudite and astute summation of the political and moral chaos engulfing our small corner of life on this planet. I surmise that as the process of the so called "Ramaphosa quasi ANC Justice" plays out in the months ahead, few will pay a price, and unfortunately the kingpins will never be brought to book. Guptagate has conveniently and timeously reared its head, it would be a very large pill to swallow if that was yet not another orchestrated event which has been, in any event, badly miscalculated to draw attention away.
One would be remiss not taking into account the internal factional long knives that are out and those that will be surely be unsheathed to settle political scores as never before witnessed in our young democracy, and that includes the turmoil of the Zuma years. The Fraser revelation is just the tip of the iceberg, there must be many skeletons to pull a "jack in the box" as we could ever dream of, too much money and resources were re-appropriated for that not to happen, never a dull moment is SA politics and I would hate to live anywhere else on this planet, just so much continually happening, what a view we have.
I do hope the new arrival brings as much happiness and love into your family as ours have into ours....God Bless and Take Care
I'm having real trouble understanding Böhmke's point. (To be clear, I think this is my failing, and not his.) Is it that the State is doing the ANC's dirty work for it, by imposing discipline by proxy? That is, it forces the ANC's hand when it indicts Ramaphosa, meaning he *must* step-aside, whereas in the absence of such an indictment, the ANC itself would be left to clean house itself?
If I'm understanding this right, I have two questions:
1) Why would you expect the ANC to clean house for any principled reason - any reason at all, in fact, beyond factionalism and a power grab? (Why you would expect a political party in even a squeaky-clean, by-the-book country to do the same in 100% of cases is a related question.)
2) Is it necessarily a problem that the state has primacy over the ANC? In fact, should that not be the case? If the objection is that the state can't be trusted either, well, A. no shit, and B. we can politely call Fraser's moment in the limelight an act of 'prosecutorial discretion' (yes, yes, he's not a prosecutor, but you know what I mean) and view it in the same light as whisteblowing elsewhere in the world. It's seldom an act of pure altruism. It's often, in fact mostly, done for self-preservation or to take out a troublesome enemy.
I don't know. Seriously, I don't. Böhmke writes above my capacity to understand sometimes. But I read his latest piece as a "woah, careful there fellas - we wouldn't want something like the state getting involved in something as big and important as the ANC!" piece and wonder if he remembers that he's writing about the fate of South Africa and not that of Luthuli House.
'English Liberalism' died at the dawn of the 20th century, as Progressives, or Social Democrats, co-opted the label... and with it consigned real liberal history to the dustbin.
Most white, middle-class South Africans have been swept up in this conflation.
A good read, though.
As usual, a good analysis Rob. I daresay we will muddle along as we have for 450 years, unless we get swept away by the demographic tsunami that may roll in from the North in the coming decades. Congratulations on your pending pater status - parenthood is great for the soul.
Outstanding effort. Thank you.
Fair analysis.