ANC and DA discover common ground

by Jared Sacks, Mail & Guardian

The ANC and the Democratic Alliance always bicker over the cause of land occupations and who promotes them for political gain. Yet looking at their actions more deeply, it becomes clear how similar the two parties really are.

Cape Town: During the first two weeks of August, thousands of backyard dwellers living in dire conditions occupied vacant land near the Marikana settlement in Philippi East. Over the following days, the City of Cape Town’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit (ALIU), with the support of hundreds of labourers and police officers, made illegal attempts to evict all the occupiers.

The Deafening Silence of the EFF's Women Leaders

Siphokazi Magadla, SACSIS

“All we are asking is that he pay back the money, why are we getting thrown out?” was the question that came from a parliamentary member of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who was identified in a Voice of America news report, as “Female EFF member” on 21 August, the day the EFF chanted “pay back the money”, to a humiliated and ill-looking Jacob Zuma. Right before Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, the EFF spokesperson started chanting, I hoped for a longer exchange between parliamentary speaker, Baleka Mbete, and the “Female EFF member”.

Voters have good reasons for choices they make

Steven Friedman, Business Day

WAS a recent cartoon’s real "mistake" that it was too honest about the contempt in which many opinion-formers hold most voters?

The African National Congress’s (ANC’s) present battle with media is largely politicking: its ANC Youth League marched on a weekly newspaper because a mild editorial suggested that readers vote for other parties. Publishing cartoons that are rude about politicians is a democratic right and public figures should expect to be ridiculed. But, when cartoons express a deep prejudice against millions of people, we should worry — particularly when their bias is deeply ingrained in the national debate.

Cast your vote, and do it wisely

Sisonke Msimang

Sisonke Msimang, The Daily Maverick

The opposition may be acting silly, but the decision that McBride should be head of Ipid despite the fact that he has broken our laws and despite the fact that he is a broken man who probably needs help, seems bloody and careless. It seems as though someone in power cares as little for the public as they do for McBride. Again short-term thinking trumps long-term decision-making in a country in which everyone is a victim. It has never been more important than it is this year to vote, and to do so wisely.

The police seem intent on killing ordinary citizens. They Police Commissioner lurches from one bloody disaster to the next. She tells us that police are human beings too. She is right, even though this is not the moment for her to tell us this. They have just killed a child. I forget the name of the town. I forget – as soon as I hear it – the name of the child who was killed. I am inured to the pain of others. The suicide rate amongst cops is shameful. They are stressed out and trigger happy and under-paid and overworked. Their problems are systemic, as deep and as wide as Blood River. We fear them as much as they fear us. This has always been the case in South Africa.

If the ANC's rivals are all right, what's left?

William Gumede, Mail & Guardian

Twenty years since the founding of South Africa's democracy, the country's existing party political system, the parties and their leaders appear unable to fulfil the needs of the majority of voters.

The increasing disconnection between the voters and parties undermines the accountability of the country's democratic system and diminishes the quality of its democracy.

It is rather obvious that any political party serious about winning an election in South Africa must grab a significant slice of the black vote.

If it was only so simple.