Thomas Johnson - The Blog

  Tony Leon leaves an intact DA   When Tony Leon, leader of DA, retired from politics after 2009’s elections, the DA was a small but effective and functioning opposition party that had modestly grown in the decade after 1994.    The DA had maintained its liberal democratic values despite the left’s criticism its “fight back” election campaign was racist and anti-black.  They conveniently overlooked the fact it was a push against the corrupt ANC and of Jacob Zuma’s and his thieving cabal’s ascendancy.    The problem was Leon and DA had not properly explained the message beforehand and had to control the fallout which the ANC initiated and used to portray the DA as racist.  It was a marketing blunder and not racism.  Reasonable people knew this, though.   Now with state capture having gutted state and society, the DA’s campaign was appropriate for the time and prophetic.  As evidence of Zuma’s et al thieving gradually became p...

 The Democratic Alliance claims they are an alternative to the ANC as a governing party.  The corrupt ANC lest we forget.   There’s no dispute the ANC is unable to govern and are corrupt. Today with corrupter-in-chief Jacob Zuma no longer in power and barely functioning, the party and country are no better off.  Corruption flourishes under alleged reformer, the weak and effectual president Cyril Ramphosa, including in his cabinet under his nose. The National Prosecutions Authority’s disappointingly wishy washy head Shamila Batohi has yet to prosecute one grand corruption case. The status quo persists.   But is the DA as good as they, their supporters and uncritical media say?    They are better managers than the ANC but that’s because the ANC set the bar very, very low.  In fact, any party can govern better as proven by coalitions where the ANC failed to get an outright majority, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth being notable ex...

The left's proposal for a basic income grant (BIG) has been revived in the aftermath of the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. But concerns about its affordability. President Cyril Ramaphosa, ever the weak leader riding on popular opinion, has expressed support for it and asked Treasury to see how it can be funded. It would be no surprise if this was one of the reasons why finance minister Tito Mboweni, who was against it and said the country can't afford it, resigned.  During the recent riots and looting in Gauteng and Kwazulu-Natal, commentators said poverty and unemployment were among the causes. This was despite the motives been an attempted insurrection. Incidentally, attributing riots to the poor is insulting because it presumes this is the only way they voice their concerns. The fact is middle class people were among rioters too.   Commentators opined the basic income grant (BIG) must be implemented as soon as possible. Suddenly it’s been resurrected again. It ...

In part 2 of my article of the DA's road to ANC's corruption, I look at  Cape Town’s Municipal Planning Tribunal, a corrupt political tool that benefits the DA’s developer friends   The City of Cape Town’s Municipal Planning Tribunal (MPT) adjudicates urban planning applications in terms of the Municipal Planning By-law 2015. However, its pro-development decisions are consistent with the DA-run city’s development friendly “red-carpet approach to development”.   I ts decisions are based on political pro-development considerations and its members are from development disciplines and city employees acting to promote the city’s agenda.   Invariably reasons for approval are that there would be purported social benefits and allegedly no/negligible negative impacts.   MPT doesn’t examine the merits of objections and all facts equally; relies upon developer applicants’ tendentious and naturally positive assessments and doesn’t objectively consider negative impa...