Thomas Johnson - The Blog

I read Jon Cayzer's On race, the DA is on the wrong side of history  in Politicsweb. This is a version of an email I sent him.  Cayzer is a former speechwriter for the DA and IFP. He's currently a PhD candidate and lives in London. His previous article,  The end of a party , was also about the DA's decline. Until the beginning of this year - now almost never - I regularly read PW but became increasingly put off by its right shift (from centre-right) since c2018. But I'm glad I took a rare peek and saw his article.  Except for one or two people, trying to engage in civil debate on PW's comments is impossible - like wrestling a pig; both get dirty. As a despairing PW commentator (a lawyer) wrote before disappearing, "PW comments is where rational debate goes to die among the [far-right, racist] vitriol". (The same can be said of associated BizNews.) Cayzer should be commended that he did and kept his good humour. Both articles are trenchant analyses of the D...

 The (sane) world and just over 50% of American voters (a small number, far from the predicted Biden landslide, given Trump's sociopathy, but that's rightwing middle America for you) are deservedly engaging in schadenfreude at Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, a loss he and his supporters like Fox News and pollster Robert Cahaly of The Trafalgar Group never foresaw.  While Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox and New York Post are distancing themselves from Trump, his refusal to concede is embarrassing any rational erstwhile fans, I wonder how other supporters, including in SA, are coping with the trauma.  For example, in South African media (not trolls who lurk in comments fora) Simon Lincoln Reader, a columnist for Business Live and BizNews, wrote in 2018 "Leftie anti-Trump procession a carnival of narcissism" (to the rightwing, "leftie", or "libtard", is disparaging), and last month, "Can the hysterical anti-Trump collective please sit down?"...

 The auditor-general has delayed the results of Western Cape Health Department until January 2021 apparently because of Covid-19. I’d like to say it was because of my intervention, though.   In June I wrote to AG Kimi Makwetu that the WCHD’s “clean audit” outcome for 2018/19 was not deserved mainly because their performance objectives could not be independently verified. WCHD’s annual report noted not all its performance objectives could be measured but gave themselves a pass anyway which the AG accepted at face value.    The AG’s criteria for a clean audit are financially unqualified and no material deviations in performance objectives and laws.   Every year the DA and DA-run administrations make a huge thing about the number of clean audits they receive. They equate it with good governance. The Western Cape: the country’s “ cleanest government ”, “ Another year of clean audits confirms commitment to good governance ” (2020) and “ Clean audits confirm c...