Elias Redwyn

Tag: politics

  • Mangaung: The Slow Death of a City

    There are cities that suffer disasters. Then there are cities that become disasters. Mangaung has become the latter. The collapse did not arrive in a single dramatic moment. There was no earthquake, no flood, no war. The city died the…

  • Out on Loan: Political Prostitutes and the Death of Conviction

    Liam Jacobs has returned to the Democratic Alliance after what appears to have been a brief loan spell at the Patriotic Alliance. Unlike football, however, politicians insist every transfer is motivated by principle rather than career advancement. When Jacobs left…

  • Making the Beds While the House Burns

    There is a particular kind of madness that develops in declining societies. You see it in politics first. The city is collapsing. Roads are failing. Water systems are breaking. Crime rises. Businesses leave. Young people disappear into emigration, unemployment, addiction,…

  • The Fuel Price Is Not the Crisis. What Comes Next Is

    South Africans were briefly told there might be relief at the pumps. A few cents here.An “over-recovery” there.The illusion that maybe, finally, something was easing. Then reality returned. The temporary fuel levy relief introduced by Treasury is now being phased…

  • The DA Just Ran Into Its Own Ideology

    There is a difference between believing in governance and becoming consumed by governing. Most political parties discover this too late. Opposition is simple. Opposition is clean. Opposition allows certainty. You point at the machine while standing safely outside of it.…

  • Power Without Leadership

    How politics became a career, and leaders became important. There is a particular performance that exists in politics. You begin to notice it after enough meetings, enough campaigns, enough speeches, enough carefully constructed photos of people shaking hands and smiling…

  • The Conviction Deficit: Why Better Management Won’t Save Opposition Politics

    There is an uncomfortable question sitting beneath South African opposition politics right now. What happens when people already believe you can govern, but still do not believe you can lead the country? For years, the Democratic Alliance has built its…