President Jacob Zuma dropped a major political bombshell yesterday when he recalled his arch-nemesis, finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, and his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas (who had allegedly previously refused a bribe from the Gupta brothers), from their international roadshow promoting South Africa in the UK and US. Speculation is rife around …
The president’s annual State of the Nation Address (SONA) is a highlight within the South African political calendar but for all the wrong reasons. Rather than a gathering that celebrates our country’s progress, the SONA has become a battleground where opposition parties demonstrate their disdain for the ANC and its leader, President …
I’ve been researching South African politics on Twitter for several years now. As we start a new year, I thought it worth wrapping up some of the things that I’ve observed into a single post. A previous post of mine drew quite a bit of attention including a dox attack on myself and …
The Public Protector’s office released its report into alleged ‘state capture’ of the South African presidency and various state-run enterprises at the end of October 2016. The report was a political and social bombshell that outlined uncomfortably close and ethically (not to mention potentially legally) fraught relationships between our president, Jacob …
[Update 1: I’ve been accused of being a ‘stooge’ for writing this article. I’d just like to confirm that these are my personal, unpaid writings that have nothing to do with my family. I write in my personal capacity as a proud South African that loves our beautiful, crazy country. …
[UPDATE 1: The South African Council of Churches released their “Unburdening Panel” report into state capture in May 2017. It is an incredibly succinct summary of state capture and I highly recommend reading it as a companion piece to the below article] [UPDATE 2: The Public Affairs Research Institute has …
In this post, I examine a dataset around the alleged “capture” of our state-run television broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Commission (SABC), by individuals loyal to President Jacob Zuma. Hlaudi Motsoeneng, COO of the SABC (note that he’s not its CEO), has been accused of censoring the news (for example by placing …
The #OccupyLuthuliHouse protests this past week were perhaps the most visible manifestation yet of the split within the ANC between President Jacob Zuma’s powerbase and those who believe that he is steering the party (and the country) in the wrong direction. I started collecting tweets on the day of the …
Andile Mngxitama and his “Black First, Land First” party really intrigue me. I can’t work out where they are coming from. First he joins as a senior member of the EFF but is kicked out. He then pops up as a talking head on Gupta-owned news station, ANN7. He/they espouse perhaps the …
Here’s a network of all the conversations happening around the Constitutional Court’s Nkandla ruling. It’s based on the 84k tweets I’ve collected since this morning. The main communities that were discussing it are: DA (8.4% of users, 9.0% of tweets) News commentators incl. Ranjeni Munsamy & Stephen Grootes (5.9% of users, 9.7% …
