As people become increasingly polarised by flagrant displays of wealth, frat boy podcasters and viral, AI-generated fake news, SA and its change of government is showing the way forward.
Listen to this article 18 min Listen to this article 18 min Every year in South African politics is bonkers in ways that rapidly become normalised. To give just two examples: In 2013, a radical new party enters Parliament dressed in the uniforms of labourers and domestic workers. In 2017, the country discovers that the president has in effect ceded control of the state to a single foreign family.
The concepts of the EFF and State Capture, respectively, became absorbed into the fabric of our chaotic body politic so quickly that today both are positively yawnworthy.
But even by these roller coaster standards, 2024 was a doozy. It was the year in which what once seemed utterly unthinkable came to pass: the ANC lost an election, for the first time in 30 years. And ... life went on.
It was also the year in which a former president, reviled by the mainstream media and up to his eyeballs in litigation, made a thunderous political comeback, and then proceeded to reward family members and allies with plum jobs. In two countries: South Africa and the US.
It was the year in which we saw the index of the Zondo Commission's damning...
