DOCSLIB.ORG

The Ugly Truth About Ras – Heystek BRIEFS Investment Strategist Magnus Heystek Shares the Ugly Truth About Retirement Annuities in This Hard-Hitting Interview

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Ugly Truth About Ras – Heystek BRIEFS Investment Strategist Magnus Heystek Shares the Ugly Truth About Retirement Annuities in This Hard-Hitting Interview PAGE 2 PAGE 4 PAGE 8 PERSONAL FINANCE// COVID-19// INTERVIEWS// WEALTH ADVISORS// FREE LUNCH OF THE DEBATE ON COVID-19 TRANSNET LOOKING INVESTMENT THEMES INVESTING WORLD VACCINES RAGES ON TO PRIVATE SECTOR FOR REST OF 2021 BizTHE RATIONAL PERSPECTIVENewsDigest WWW.BIZNEWS.COM SATURDAY 21 AUGUST 2021 BIZNEWSCOM The ugly truth about RAs – Heystek BRIEFS Investment strategist Magnus Heystek shares the ugly truth about retirement annuities in this hard-hitting interview. Worse, Over the government have made amendments to the regulations that make it troublesome to access your pension in the event of immigration. Heystek says he rarely advises retirement annuity-like products to his clients, due to their illiquidity as financial 100,000 instruments. He also lambasts the front that many of South Africa’s largest financial institutions put on when it comes to the tax SA mineworkers benefits of these products, outlining that the benefits simply do not outweigh the costs. – Justin Rowe-Roberts vaccinated in various retirement products that they’ve been told to invest in all their lives. And they need that money Hackers got to set up a home or an office or a lifestyle somewhere else. But now sensitive data on that money is locked up. Now that’s already creating a lot of anger and a 40 million lot of uncertainty. people, says And lo and behold, last week government came with a new draft T-Mobile taxation bill which said, in addition to the three-year waiting rule, there will Magnus Heystek on the situation be an exit tax applied to those people Govt wants with retirement annuities in South who decide to formally immigrate. South Africans Africa So that is not only immediate, it has “Before the unrest in KZN, a very severe impact on people who change your mind. You might want and destitute. But you putting your to pay 12% want to immigrate and they need government came with certain to immigrate for whatever reason. money into a monkey trap, you can proposed changes under what the money now – that’s now very put your hand through the trap, but of earnings into circumstances you can withdraw debatable how long they’re going How to transfer your you can’t withdraw it. And that, to state-managed money from a retirement to wait and what taxes they have to retirement fund out of South me, is very dangerous. And we need fund annuity (RA), pension fund and pay. But the question many people Africa in 2021 and beyond to debate this.” provident fund when you decide – younger people, professional to immigrate. Up to now, financial people – they might not even be It’s your money. The government On new amendments to the pension World’s biggest immigration was fairly simple. You contemplating retirement now but is actually saying – it’s not actually fund amendments would financially immigrate and they might some time down the road. your money. We gave you that tax- “That’s correct. It’s not only your sovereign wealth you would pay certain taxes, you There might be another flare up. Now, free gap to put money in. We have a retirement annuities, it’s also your fund earns will withdraw your money and the big question is – is an RA still right what you do with your money pension fund and or preservation it will leave with you when you worth it? Should you even consider when you pull that out. Now, that fund. Retirement capital now stays decide to immigrate. Now that an RA in the sense that it’s already a to me is very ominous. And people in South Africa. You can go – you R1.6trn ruling was changed, so there’s a very illiquid investment instrument must be made aware of the fact that and your family can go, but the in first half three-year waiting rule, which is – it’s subject to Regulation 28 of the government is already doing it and money remains behind. You start bad enough. Government has said Pensions Act, which has severely will increasingly exercise control your process and you have to come your money must remain behind impacted your growth because over your retirement money. Which back three years later and you have when you decide to immigrate. you were allowed 30% of offshore them, together with the retirement to prove to someone in Treasury July unrest saw Now that’s already creating exposure over the last 10 years. planning industry, has been urging that you have immigrated.” over consternation amongst a lot of And now you’ve got the uncertainty you to put money away on the basis R119m people who might be middle-aged that although you’re building up that people retire with not enough Listen to the full interview in ‘hard cash’ and might have R10m or R20m some retirement capital, you might money and they’re going to be poor stolen from banks and ATMs Subscribe here for your weekly BizNewsDigest Subscribe now The BizNews Shop Everything from Investing like Warren Buffett to Cyril Ramaphosa’s audiobiography by Anthony Butler (Read by Alec Hogg) 2 | SATURDAY 21 AUGUST 2021 WWW.BIZNEWS.COM COVID-19 Covid-19 vaccines: the debate rages on ast week, a video was uploaded to health issue. I think if one wants to put some vulnerable individuals. This disease is the first Bitchute in which Dr Susan Vosloo, perspective just for this country briefly; the medical condition ever that is predominantly, DOWNLOAD THE FREE SA’s first female heart surgeon, raised expected usual deaths from flu annually is I would say, ‘mismanaged’ – not by Lgrave concerns about the safety of Covid-19 about 0.1% to 0.3% of the population. Now knowledgeable people but by politicians, BIZNEWS.COM APP vaccines. Dr Vosloo also questioned the if we just consider our country that has a bureaucrats and academics. And it’s fueled manner in which Covid-19 has been population of just over 60 million – the death by relentless scaremongering created by the addressed, stating that, “this disease is rate so far is about 72,000 in about a year media.” the first medical condition ever that is and a half. So if you calculate the deaths per predominantly, I would say, ‘mismanaged’ thousand of the population or in terms of the On the suppression of early treatment – not by knowledgeable people but by total population – we are at 0.12% compared modalities BN politicians, bureaucrats and academics. to the US that is at 0.18%, nearly 0.19% and “From the beginning, it was very clear that And it’s fueled by relentless scaremongering the whole world is at 0.05%. So for such a there was no interest whatsoever in treating created by the media.” The video received small number of potential deaths, there’s patients and relieving suffering and preventing fierce pushback from the medical profession been huge implications for the normal and death. The vaccine was shown as the only Click on the links below to as being a contributor to the increasing healthy society. potential saviour and the official advice was download your own free vaccine hesitancy in the country – which If one compares with the Spanish flu that that this was a disease like the flu with a BizNews.com App is said to be a major roadblock to the vaccine happened in 1918, more than 5% of the world vascular component that was untreatable. The rollout. – Nadya Swart population was killed – so this really pales suggestion was made that people should just into insignificance. But I think one has to stay at home, do nothing until they are not Dr Susan Vosloo on Covid-19 and its low acknowledge [it] as ongoing and if this was able to breathe anymore and then seek help. mortality rate started as an artificial disease where there are That is far too late. Some well-known, early “I was asked to speak about the gene therapy people getting sick, there are people dying – I treatment modalities have been suppressed that’s disguised as Covid vaccinations and don’t think one can exclude the potential for – you know what they are. The one drug the question was ‘are they effective and are more waves to come. And what astonishes one was connected with the previous American they safe?’ I think one of the views that really is that the waves are predicted and they predict president. Fabricated and discredited scientific appealed to me is that the vaccine was not when they come and predict when they go study followed that has been – in medical and this has also been discredited continuously brought in for Covid, but that Covid was and one just wonders how that happens. history, quite embarrassingly – retracted by – even going so far as to writing scientific brought in for the vaccine. And once one Another new experience for us in healthcare two of the biggest journals that exist. papers where it is called ‘a right-wing drug’ realises that – there are many things that is that historically, health issues have been The other drug that some people refer to as which is really hard to take seriously.” make more sense. managed by medical professionals – focusing ‘vitamin I’ has also been shown to be effective Like Dr Kirsten said, this is not really a on the sick and taking care of protecting by many people treating these patients early Watch the full video here The minimum investment GOLDEN VISA amount will be raised to Є500k in a few months, so it is essential to seize this PORTUGAL phenomenal investment opportunity while it is still A last chance for an exceptional available.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Opposition Party Mobilization in South Africa's Dominant
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Eroding Dominance from Below: Opposition Party Mobilization in South Africa’s Dominant Party System A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science by Safia Abukar Farole 2019 © Copyright by Safia Abukar Farole 2019 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Eroding Dominance from Below: Opposition Party Mobilization in South Africa’s Dominant Party System by Safia Abukar Farole Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, Los Angeles, 2019 Professor Kathleen Bawn, Chair In countries ruled by a single party for a long period of time, how does political opposition to the ruling party grow? In this dissertation, I study the growth in support for the Democratic Alliance (DA) party, which is the largest opposition party in South Africa. South Africa is a case of democratic dominant party rule, a party system in which fair but uncompetitive elections are held. I argue that opposition party growth in dominant party systems is explained by the strategies that opposition parties adopt in local government and the factors that shape political competition in local politics. I argue that opposition parties can use time spent in local government to expand beyond their base by delivering services effectively and outperforming the ruling party. I also argue that performance in subnational political office helps opposition parties build a reputation for good governance, which is appealing to ruling party ii. supporters who are looking for an alternative. Finally, I argue that opposition parties use candidate nominations for local elections as a means to appeal to constituents that are vital to the ruling party’s coalition.
    [Show full text]
  • A New, Positive Yet Fractious, Era in SA Politics
    Plexus Wealth Watch August 2016 PLEXUS WEALTH POST=ELECTION ANALYSIS prepared exclusively for Plexus Wealth clients by author and political commentator Justice Malala A New, Positive Yet Fractious, Era In SA Politics INTRODUCTION AND HEADLINE VIEW It’s not quite a clean sweep, but it’s the closest thing to one we have seen in the new South Africa. The Democratic Alliance now holds power in the administrative capital of SA, Tshwane; in the economic capital, Johannesburg; in the parliamentary capital, Cape Town, and in other key urban hubs such as Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape and in Mogale City in Gauteng. The mighty ANC, after just 22 years in power, is now a rural party, led by a traditionalist chauvinist, while its support among the educated black and white elite ebbs away. Herman Mashaba = a black former salesman turned millionaire from Hammanskraal, one of the poorest places on earth = is now Mayor of Johannesburg, unseating the liberation movement, the ANC. It represents a major mindshift in SA politics. A real change has begun. The recent local government elections mark a significant turning point in South Africa’s history. For the first time since 1994, political and economic power has shifted in major metropolitan areas from the ANC to opposition coalitions. Real and necessary competition has entered SA politics. This is a powerful and positive development: the narrative of a liberation movement that stays in power too long without challenge, as happened in Zimbabwe for example, has been broken. The 2019 elections are likely to cement this trajectory, meaning that South Africa will become a normal, multi=party, noisy democracy where power is contested, won and lost within the next ten years.
    [Show full text]
  • “They Have Robbed Me of My Life” Xenophobic Violence Against Non-Nationals in South Africa WATCH
    HUMAN RIGHTS “They Have Robbed Me of My Life” Xenophobic Violence Against Non-Nationals in South Africa WATCH “They Have Robbed Me of My Life” Xenophobic Violence Against Non-Nationals in South Africa Copyright © 2020 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-62313-8547 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org SEPTEMBER 2020 ISBN: 978-1-62313-8547 “They Have Robbed Me of My Life” Xenophobic Violence Against Non-Nationals in South Africa Map .................................................................................................................................. i Summary ......................................................................................................................... 1 Recommendations ..........................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Africa's Soft Power : Philosophies, Political Values, Foreign Policies and Cultural Exports / Oluwaseun Tella
    “This seven-chapter book is a powerful testimonial to consummate African scholarship. Its analysis is rigorous, insightful, lucid and authoritative, providing fresh perspectives on selected uniquely African philosophies, and the potential­ ities, deployment and limitations of soft power in Africa’s international relations. The author rigorously Africanises the concept, broadening its analytic scope from its biased Western methodology, thus brilliantly fulfilling that great African pro­ verb made famous by the inimitable Chinua Achebe: ‘that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter’. This is truly an intellectual tour de force.” W. Alade Fawole, Professor of International Relations, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. “This book addresses an important tool in the arsenal of foreign policy from an African perspective. African states have significant soft power capacities, although soft power is not always appreciated as a lever of influence, or fully integrated into countries’ foreign policy strategies. Tella takes Nye’s original concept and Africanises it, discussing Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa via their respective philosophies of Pharaonism, Harambee, Omolúwàbí and Ubuntu. This study is a critical contribution to the literature on African foreign policies and how to use soft power to greater effect in building African agency on the global stage.” Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, Chief Executive, South African Institute of International Affairs, Johannesburg, South Africa. “Soft power is seldom associated with African states, given decades bedevilled by coup d’états, brazen dictatorships and misrule. This ground-breaking book is certainly a tour de force in conceptualising soft power in the African context.
    [Show full text]
  • Herman Mashaba
    Delivering Diphetogo End of Term Report Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba Foreword by the Executive Mayor On the 3rd of August 2016, the residents of Johannesburg rejected the status quo of the previous two decades, and voted for change. With a clear mandate from the electorate, the Democratic Alliance (DA), with the support of six formal coalition partners – including the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Al Jama‐ah (AJ), Congress of the People (COPE), Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) – and backed by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on an ‘issue by issue’ basis, formed the first multi‐party government in the City’s history. It was through this highly complex arrangement that I was elected as the Executive Mayor of the City on the 22nd of August 2016, and undertook a journey to deliver the change the residents had demanded. The past three years have seen the multi‐party government come to grips with challenges far beyond what we expected to find in the City. As a businessman, I thought I was familiar with many of the challenges facing not only Johannesburg, but South Africa at large, including rising unemployment, growing inequality and endemic corruption. It was not until I was charged with tackling these issues on behalf of the City’s 5 million residents, that I was fully able to appreciate their impact on the lived experience of our people. Indeed, in the private sector one has the luxury of being academic about both the challenges we face, as well as the solutions required to fix them.
    [Show full text]
  • Two Cheers? South African Democracy's First Decade
    Review of African Political Economy No.100:193-202 © ROAPE Publications Ltd., 2004 Two Cheers? South African Democracy’s First Decade Morris Szeftel The contributions in this issue mark the tenth anniversary of democracy and political liberation in South Africa. They are a selection of the papers originally presented to a Workshop organised in September 2003 in Johannesburg by the Democracy and Governance section of the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa. We are grateful to Roger Southall, its director, and to John Daniel for organising the conference, agreeing to a joint publication of papers with ROAPE and co-editing this issue. All the contributors are scholars and activists living and working in South Africa. It is fitting that an assessment of the first decade of democracy in South Africa should also be the 100th issue of The Review of African Political Economy. From its beginnings in 1974, ROAPE’s commitment to the liberation and development of Africa always had the struggle for a democratic South Africa as one of its central themes. Alongside many others, contributors to the journal consistently viewed the fight against racial capitalism in South Africa as critical for the future of Africa as a whole; indeed, as one which defined ideas of justice and decency for all humanity. Writing on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the ANC, the editors argued that ‘its principles, expressed through the Freedom Charter, have come to stand for a democratic alternative in South Africa. It is the white state which today represents barbarism; the principles of the Charter which represent decency and civilisation’ (Cobbett et al, 1987:3).
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Anthropology
    CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY THE CITY OTHERWISE: The Deferred Emergency of Occupation in Inner-City Johannesburg MATTHEW WILHELM-SOLOMON University of the Witwatersrand https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9946-5817 In August 2017, the mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, in the inter- national business publication Bloomberg, announced a campaign of “shock and awe” in inner-city Johannesburg, pronouncing the city a “battlefield” (Mkokeli 2017). The particular target of his rhetoric was the city’s so-called hijacked buildings— unlawful occupations also known as “bad buildings” or “dark buildings.” Mash- aba, a former cosmetics businessman, who had grown up in poverty (Mashaba and Morris 2017), had won Johannesburg for the pro-business opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA), defeating, for the first time in the post-apartheid era, the African National Congress (ANC). Mashaba, who as a young man had experi- enced the continued violence and insecurity of police raids, adopted raids as a pri- mary strategy in his approach to issues of crime and housing in the inner city. He personally led a series of police raids on inner-city occupations and railed against both immigrants and human rights lawyers. He portrayed hijacked buildings as a blight on the city, full of criminals and undocumented migrants. But what were these buildings, and who occupied them? How is one to understand the character of this occupation? And what did closing them imply? Where were the occupants to go? CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. 35, Issue 3, pp. 404–434, ISSN 0886-7356, online ISSN 1548-1360. © American Anthropological Association 2020. Cultural Anthropology journal content published since 2014 is freely available to download, save, reproduce, and transmit for noncommercial, scholarly, and educational purposes.
    [Show full text]
  • Mayors Urban 20 Buenos Aires
    Mayors Urban 20 www.urban20.org Buenos Aires Horacio Rodríguez Larreta was born on October 29th 1965 in the City of Buenos Aires. He is married to Barbara Diez and has three daughters: Paloma, Manuela and Serena. He holds a Licentiate degree in Economics from the Universidad de Buenos Aires (he graduated in 1988) and a Master Degree in Business Administration from Harvard University. HORACIO In 1993 he founded the “Fundación Grupo Sophia”, an NGO RODRÍGUEZ LARRETA composed of young people with the intention to assume public responsibilities. In fact, important Argentinean politicians used to Mayor of Buenos Aires be part of this NGO. Politicians as the Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires María Eugenia Vidal or the Minister of Social Development Carolina Stanley among many others. In 2002 he started to participate actively in politics with Mauricio Macri, with whom in 2003 founded the political party “Compromiso para el Cambio”, political party that was renamed as “Propuesta Republicana” (PRO) in 2005. In 2005, when Mauricio Macri was elected as deputy, he was the General Director of the PRO electoral campaign. Later on, in 2007 and in 2011, he held the same position and, as a consequence, Macri was appointed Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires. While Mauricio Macri was the Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires, he worked alongside with him as Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers of the City of Buenos Aires. During these years, he stressed the need for a better management of the city as a whole, for a major investment in new and better public policies.
    [Show full text]
  • Popular Expressions of Southern African Nationalism(S): Convergences, Divergences, and Reconciliations in South Africa and Zimbabwe
    POPULAR EXPRESSIONS OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN NATIONALISM(S): CONVERGENCES, DIVERGENCES, AND RECONCILIATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND ZIMBABWE By Blessing Shingirirai Mavima A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of African American and African Studies – Doctor of Philosophy 2019 ABSTRACT POPULAR EXPRESSIONS OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN NATIONALISM(S): CONVERGENCES, DIVERGENCES, AND RECONCILIATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND ZIMBABWE By Blessing Shingirirai Mavima Popular Expressions of Pan-Africanism and Southern African Nationalism(s): Convergences, Divergences, and Reconciliations in South Africa and Zimbabwe is a dissertation study that traces the transformations, reveals the tensions, and critically analyzes diverging and converging trajectories of different manifestations of African nationalism, including ethnic nationalism, state nationalism, and Pan-Africanism using contemporary South Africa and Zimbabwe as sites of analyses. Focusing on the metropolitan provinces of Gauteng and Harare respectively, I use the study to interrogate how popular expressions of African nationalism have emerged and evolved in the neighboring nations during their anti-colonial/anti-apartheid struggles throughout the 20 th century, and how they exist today. Presenting a thesis that I call nationalisms from below, the research study reveals how these manifestations of nationalism are imagined, practiced, and represente d by the initiatives and actions of different members of the civil society including artists, activists, laborers, and migrants in the two countries’ contemporary politics and society. My findings lead to a nuanced determination of the factors that influence the intersections, divergences, and convergences of what I refer to in the study as Africa’s tripartite nationalist expressions and identities—ethnicism, African Nationalism, and Pan- Africanism.
    [Show full text]
  • An Evaluation of the Functioning of Metropolitan Municipal Councils in Gauteng, South Africa
    An evaluation of the functioning of metropolitan municipal councils in Gauteng, South Africa by ONKGOPOTSE SENATLA MADUMO Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF ADMINISTRATION: (Public Administration) in the FACULTY OF ECONOMIC AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA Supervisor: Prof. Dr C. Thornhill December 2017 DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY I, Onkgopotse Senatla Madumo, student number 04307542, declare that the thesis, titled “An evaluation of the functioning of metropolitan municipal councils in Gauteng, South Africa” which I hereby submit for the degree Doctor of Administration (Public Administration) at the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, University of Pretoria, is my own work and has not previously been submitted by me for a degree at this or any other tertiary institution. Signature: Date: 05 December 2017 Onkgopotse Senatla Madumo Pretoria, Republic of South Africa ii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my mother, Mamoriri Violet Madumo for the immense and instrumental role she has played in my life. My mother epitomises excellence, hard work, dedication and resilience. This thesis is the fruit of your toiling. You are appreciated. Kea leboga! “Kodumela moepathutse, ga go lehumo le le tšwago kgauswi” iii ABSTRACT The study examines the functioning of municipal councils in ensuring the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner. Municipalities are at the coalface of service delivery, which is why they are significant in improving the quality of lives of the communities under which they serve. The study is significant as municipalities in the recent past experienced different forms of civil disobedience which could arguably be attributed on the lack of capability by municipalities to respond adequately to the delivery needs for services from communities.
    [Show full text]
  • The Challenges of Transitioning from Opposition to Governing Party: the Case Study of the Democratic Alliance in South Africa'
    The challenges of transitioning from opposition to governing party: The case study of the Democratic Alliance in South Africa’s Western Cape Province. Sandile Mnikati (214582906) This Dissertation is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Science in Political Science at the School of Social Sciences, College of Humanities, University of KwaZulu-Natal Supervisor: Dr. Khondlo Mtshali Co-supervisor: Mr Sandile Mnguni i DECLARATION I Sandile Mnikati declare that: 1. The research reported in this thesis, except where otherwise indicated,is my original research. 2. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. 3. This thesis does not contain other persons· data, pictures, graphs or other infom1ation, unless specifically acknowledged asbeing sourced from other persons. 4. This thesis does not contain another persons' writing, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. \1/hereother written sources have been quoted, then: a. Their words have been re-written, but the general information attributed to them has been referenced b. Where their exact words have been used, then their writing has been placed in inside quotation marks and referenced. 5. This thesis does not contain text, graphicsor tables copied and pasted from the Internet. unless specifically acknowledged, and the source being detailed in the Thesis and in rhe References sections. _Mnikati.S_ Student Name Sign,Ullre. , % Date 2020/05/09 Mtshali, K Supervisor Mnguni.S Co-Supervisor ii Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to all the members of the Mnikathi and Wallett family, you have been a pillar of strength throughout this journey.
    [Show full text]
  • EXTRACT the Accidental Mayor: Herman Mashaba and the Battle For
    EXTRACT The Accidental Mayor: Herman Mashaba and the Battle for Johannesburg Mashaba’s challenges with the DA were compounded by the fact that the party was going through an existential crisis. It had become deeply divided and those factional lines were drawn from the top all the way down to our caucus. On the one side were the self-proclaimed ‘true liberals’, who feared that the party was abandoning its liberal values in order to expand beyond the confines of its historical support base. I believe that many of these people wanted the DA to remain within the comfort zone of suburbia, happy to continue as a small, tight-knit party with a largely white electorate. On the other side were those desperate to see the party grow into a force that could contest and win elections, while giving expression to its liberal values in a way relevant to the South African context. At one stage, it was reported in the media that these two groups had been branded ‘the Laptop Boys’ and ‘the Bruma Boys’. Not exactly the stuff of hardened prison gangs. At the centre of the schism was how the DA would respond to the question of race and racism. The party was severely divided on these subjects, and since 2016 any discussion on them had become unmanageable. The ‘true liberals’ rejected race as a proxy for disadvantage, although some begrudgingly agreed that race and inequality did in fact coincide. They believed that race- based policies to redress the legacies of apartheid should be abandoned. How the diagnosis and the cure could be unrelated in their simple minds is beyond me.
    [Show full text]