“We are not calling for the slaughter of white people, at least for now…” Julius Malema’s comments, made on Monday 7 November after appearing in the Newcastle Magistrate’s Court on two charges of violating the Riotous Assemblies Act of 1957 for urging land invasions, are hugely irresponsib...

Pravin Gordhan’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday underscores the central role that politics plays in the economy. For all his honourable intentions and fine words, Gordhan did not have a good story to tell about the state of our economy. For all his brave talk, there is not much i...

Last week I tabled a Motion of No Confidence in President Zuma, to be voted on by the National Assembly before the end of this year. His egregious and damaging attack on Finance Minister Gordhan two weeks ago, in order to replace him with a pliant lackey and thereby gain control of the Treasury...

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”Charle...

History will mark the 2016 election as a pivotal moment in SA’s political development. No one foresaw the ANC losing so much of its urban support as to lose control of three powerful metros and fall a full eight percentage points nationally, bringing the party to a point where losing power in 2019...

Free university education is the ultimate agenda of the #FeesMustFall movement. As attractive as that notion seems, especially given South Africa’s cruel history of repression in education, it is simply not in our country’s nor even our students’ best interests. However, the students are absol...

Jacob Zuma’s nuclear deal will be disastrous for South Africa. It will literally bankrupt us, diverting billions of rands from poverty reduction projects, while producing a nuclear white elephant in two decades’ time. But it will make a lot of money for Zuma, the Guptas and ANC cronies in the sh...

Honourable MembersToday we are debating the phenomenon of ‘state capture’ in our country.State capture is defined as “a form of systemic corruption in which private interests influence government decision-making to their own advantage”.Now, I think it is important to acknowledge that Pr...

On Wednesday this week, Brazil’s political landscape was overhauled, with the impeachment of President Rousseff. This brings to an end fourteen years of rule by her Workers Party, their punishment for mismanaging the economy and tolerating corruption. After months of stalemate, Brazil now has the ...

What a time to be alive! In the past three weeks, we have witnessed one of the most radical and important changes our country has seen since 1994. On 3 August 2016, voters put South Africa on a new trajectory. And we reaffirmed that we work as a nation. Our democracy works, and South Africans are l...

This is make or break. The polls are showing that we are neck-and-neck with the ANC in the big metros of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay. These are SA’s economic powerhouses. It’s going to be close, but we can win these cities. And if we do, we will turn them around like we have tu...

The ANC is nose-diving. We cannot let South Africa go down with it. It is time to cut loose. This once magnificent party that played a crucial role in bringing about our democracy, is now our greatest liability. Infected by endemic cronyism and corruption, it has lost the capacity and the will to s...

Two weeks ago, I visited Mkholombe, an informal settlement of Port Shepstone in Southern KZN. It was distressing. Mkholombe’s eight thousand residents share just three taps. They have not a single toilet, neither flush nor bucket. Sewerage runs down the paths and no formal electricity at all ligh...

The recent clampdown on SABC reporting and news coverage is only the obvious end game of years of political capture of the public broadcaster by the ANC. It was more than a bit rich for the ANC this week to criticise Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s latest news censorship, when it has for years deliberately a...

The ANC government has begun the process to acquire a new luxury presidential jet with an estimated price tag of R4 billion, even while our economy shrinks and our jobs crisis skyrockets to 8.9 million adults without work. South Africa simply cannot afford this jet and we have to stop it before it ...

Given the prevailing sentiment towards my country at the moment, let me start out by saying that I have never been more positive about the future of South Africa than I am now.  If you have ever visited South Africa, which I hope you have, you may have been to the Cradle of Humankind just nort...

Good morning to my fellow guests, studio audience and everyone following this discussion on TV, radio and social media. I’d like to thank the Daily Maverick for hosting this event, because it is crucial to speak about the issues facing our country in a mature and respectful manner. It is indeed i...

On Wednesday, the Auditor-General released his latest report, revealing that R2.2 billion went to unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure last financial year in the three major ANC-run metros, Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay, while for DA-run Cape Town that amount was zero. The...

Fellow South Africans, Residents of Mandela Bay Democrats, As the Democratic Alliance (DA) we have committed, through our Manifesto for Change, to create opportunities and jobs for all South Africans. This is a fight we have committed ourselves to, a fight that will ensure that we restore the dignit...

There are now 8.9 million jobless people in South Africa, according to the latest StatsSA quarterly labour force report, released this week. This is the highest jobless number ever recorded in our country.It is easy to regard these just as numbers - but we can’t forget that this number represents ...

Right now, as you read this newsletter, the president of South Africa stands legally accused of multiple criminal offences.Last Friday, the North Gauteng High Court ruled that the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA’s) decision in early April 2009 to drop charges against Jacob Zuma was irratio...

Fellow South Africans, I stand before you today as a son of Dobsonville, Soweto. I am proud of my roots. I will never forget where I come from. I stand before you as the Leader of a movement for change. When I look out at all of you, I see the future of our country in all its glorious diversity, an...

My fellow young South Africans,Our country stands before a crossroads. In just three months’ time we go to the polls to vote in the most important municipal election of our 22 year-old democracy.Never before have so many South Africans from all walks of life said: We are ready for a new government...

The ANC is selling the futures of a generation of South Africa’s poorest school children in exchange for SADTU’s political support.Instead of appointing teachers and principals who are committed and competent, South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) members have been selling teacher and ...

The ANC is beyond redemption. In Tuesday’s impeachment debate in the National Assembly, the ANC’s parliamentary caucus voted unanimously to retain Jacob Zuma as the president despite last week’s Constitutional Court ruling that he failed to “uphold, defend and respect the Constitution” dur...

Yesterday’s judgment in the Constitutional Court was arguably the most important court ruling in our two decade-old democracy. Not only because it reaffirms the power of the Office of the Public Protector. Not only because it held President Zuma to account and ordered him to pay for non-security u...

On 19 January 2016, I made a speech on race and racism in South Africa, in which I committed to holding a series of dialogues, entitled Stand Up, Speak Out, involving South Africans from all walks of life.The purpose of these dialogues is to talk about the persistence of racial inequality in our cou...

My fellow South Africans The scars left by Sharpeville – and the many other brutal acts of oppression inflicted on our people over decades of Apartheid rule – will never fade. These losses, these injustices will always haunt our nation. We will never forget. And we must never forget. We sometime...

Last weekend, over 3 million people visited the 22 000 voter registration stations around South Africa, some 700 000 registering for the first time. Millions more made use of the IEC’s sms number to check their registration details. Over a hundred thousand volunteers worked as party agents to obse...

South Africa is in a precarious, unstable position. We face the very real threat of a credit rating downgrade to junk status. Right now, we need to be doing everything in our power to avert this damaging outcome. More than ever, we need strong, decisive leadership. Last week’s budget went some way...

The saying: “actions speak louder than words” is particularly true when applied to politics. This can be a great disadvantage for opposition parties, since words, in the form of promises and untested policies, are usually all they have to convince citizens to give them a chance to govern.However...

The Democratic Alliance calls for calm and restraint by both SAPS and protesters in the wake of the breaching of the parliamentary precinct by students fighting against the exorbitant cost of higher education. The critical nature of the situation demands decisive leadership and an urgent response fr...

The DA has come to the University of Fort Hare (UFH) today to stand up for the constitutional rights and freedoms of students on this campus. Earlier this year the DA Students Organisation (DASO) won an historic victory when they wrestled control of the SRC from the ANC-aligned SASCO. Since c...

My fellow young South Africans, I love traveling to Nelson Mandela Bay. The City has a buzz of excitement about it.  It is ready to be great. And, believe me, with the right government, this city is going to take off. And its youth will be at the forefront. Thank you for we...