Eusebius on TimesLIVE

Sunday Times columnist Prof William Gumede argues that political parties should either be willing to introspect after the recent local government elections or “close shop”.

He appeared on Eusebius on TimesLIVE, responding to a sustained critique of his recent work by veteran ANC leader and activist Mavuso Msimang.

Msimang had accused Gumede of “intellectual paucity” for speculating about the reasons why many voters had this time not chosen to vote ANC.

Gumede inferred from the recent electoral outcome that voters intentionally sought to bring about coalitions, which Msimang thinks is an unsubstantiated claim too many pundits are making.

This dialectic between these well-known thinkers is, at its core, about whether the ANC may be able to reverse its electoral fortunes, or whether a new era of coalitions will take root at provincial and national levels.

Veteran ANC leader and activist Mavuso Msimang has critiqued the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa in a frank discussion with TimesLIVE contributor and analyst Eusebius McKaiser.

Msimang argues that Ramaphosa’ fundamental mistake is being “too cautious” and playing a “long game” instead of moving quickly against those who are self-interested and not aligned with the values of the organisation. He says the president should leverage his popularity — knowing that personally it is even bigger than that of the ANC — to chart a new way forward. Instead, argues Msimang, Ramaphosa’s cautious approach allows those interested in corruption to regroup.In a wide-ranging conversation in this episode of Eusebius on TimesLIVE, Msimang also offers a sustained critique of Sunday Times Daily columnist William Gumede’s post-election analysis. He accuses Gumede of displaying “intellectual paucity” for lacking the necessary empirical data to support an argument that voters voted for coalition governance. Msimang cautions analysts to not use “emotion” when analysing electoral patterns and argues that there is no proof voters had “a priori” intention to usher in coalition governments. While scathing of corruption within the ANC-led state, Msimang thinks the ruling party, DA and EFF may do better, but that each has major internal weaknesses that will need to be eliminated to improve their future electoral prospects.

Eusebius McKaiser is joined by University of Cape Town (UCT) law professor, author and political analyst Richard Calland in his latest episode of Eusebius on TimesLIVE. They discuss whether a mandatory state vaccination policy will pass the rights limitations test of the constitution.

Calland explains why the core requirements of rationality and favourable analysis of competing rights that are at stake will ultimately fall on the side of mandatory vaccinations. The efficacy of vaccines and absence of less restrictive means of dealing effectively with Covid-19 are legal premises, based on scientific evidence, that could persuade the bench.

The discussion then segues into political analysis, with a focus on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership. McKaiser and Calland are of the view, and offer arguments in support thereof, that Ramaphosa is no crisis president. His style and approach to problem-solving is admirably collaborative, but this is not appropriate within the context of a deep crisis that requires decisive thought leadership and action rather than agnosticism.

Calland urges the president to ignore the noise of anti-vaccine campaigners and focus on sound science as the basis of rational policy formation.

In this edition of Eusebius on TimesLIVE, he was joined by Judi Nwokedi, Chair of the AIDS Consortium in South Africa, to take stock of the war against HIV/AIDS on World AIDS Day. South Africa has the largest antiretroviral rollout programme in the world. Yet, despite this achievement, Nwokedi warns against complacency.

She argues that it is a mistake to think of living with HIV as being akin to having any other chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension. HIV comes with “a lot of excess baggage” unlike other chronic illnesses. In many families, it is still not spoken about and many people living with HIV experience derision from others. The war against HIV/AIDS, she warns us, will not end by 2030 if we do not deal stigma a fatal blow.

Michael Beaumont, national chairperson of ActionSA, faced questions on Eusebius on TimesLIVE, about why his party had seemingly contradicted itself by describing the Democratic Alliance as dishonest over the weekend yet voting for its mayoral candidates this week. He attempted to defend their voting choices by drawing a distinction between supporting the DA per se and ensuring the African National Congress is cliffed, insisting the latter motivation trumps the "dishonesty" of the DA.

McKaiser also engaged him on the political differences between ActionSA and the DA, and he conceded that "there is overlap" between the parties but that there are also "values differences" such as their different positions on race. He characterised the DA as being colour-blind whereas ActionSA, by contrast, accepts and understands the historical reality of racialised identities. Beaumont conceded, however, that his party had yet to fully develop a clear identity beyond contesting the local elections.

McKaiser and Beaumont also explored other themes including the reality, which Beaumont conceded, that the party cannot survive without the leader Herman Mashaba, and that coalition arrangements are likely to be unstable because of a lack of political maturation within South African body politic. McKaiser, lastly, also pressured Beumont to explain reports of a journalist, Edwin Ntshidi, who had been sworn in as an ActionSA PR councilor, suggesting apparent unethical behaviour if the conflict of interest had not been declared while he was freelancing as a journalist during the elections. Beamont confirmed that the party is "investigating" the matter.

In this first Afrikaans interview on Eusebius on TimesLIVE, McKenzie dodges bullets from Eusebius McKaiser who engaged him on his decision to form coalitions with the ANC in municipalities.McKenzie criticises both the DA and the ANC, but attempts to offer justification for why the ANC is preferable to work with despite its shoddy governance record.

McKenzie also explains his view that overlapping principles are irrelevant when forming coalitions, and that one should rather talk about the business of sharing membership of mayoral committees and other important portfolios and positions within councils.These powerful positions are necessary, he argues, to ensure tenders and job opportunities reach "[his] people”, referring in particular to coloured people, and working class and unemployed South Africans generally.He goes so far as to claim that he would even have been willing to negotiate with the erstwhile AWB, because leaders should rise above value differences when no-one received an outright majority.The discussion ended with a probe of the PA’s ultimate purpose.

Eusebius decided to hang out with the Democratic Alliance's nominee for deputy mayor of uMngeni Municipality, Sandile Mnikathi.

Interestingly, he does not identify as a liberal but as a social democrat. On Eusebius on TimesLIVE he explained the difference. He also tells us about his personal biography and how, as the son of a domestic worker, he has come to live comfortably within a blended family featuring black and white family but which is not a life that is crudely reducible to race as such.

The discussion ended with a description of the plans for the Municipality, Mnikathi's response to those who think he is excitingly young but maybe too inexperienced for the job, and finally some thoughts on his academic journey including his research focus for his PhD which flows from his Master's work.

Eusebius invited fellow columnist and veteran journalist and editor Peter Bruce to discuss the local government election results.

They explored a number of themes, including how the electoral hegemony of the ANC has been dislodged and what the political implications are. They also discussed the realities facing the DA and the EFF, that the electoral data clearly demonstrates that the two biggest opposition parties are not immune to voter discontent.

Bruce, who has observed elections here and in the UK for many decades, made an interesting argument about the massive potential of Herman Mashaba, leader of ActionSA, to get enormous financial backing from business leaders who have been secretly waiting to back an economically conservative black politician, and who can find that economic conviction and conservative politics in Mashaba.

They ended their discussion by stepping back from the details, and assessing the general state of the country’s democracy and its overall economic health.

Former DA leader and founder of One South Africa Movement Mmusi Maimane spoke to Eusebius McKaiser about how his exit from the DA has allowed him to grow, and with it his new “lit” persona on Twitter.

On Eusebius on TimesLIVE he also critiqued the electoral system and explained why reform is crucial to improve governance.

Maimane confirmed that he will return to formal politics next year and remarked that he is “not coy” about his political ambition. He explained why and how the results of Monday’s local government elections bolster his intuition about the limitations of the parties that dominate South African politics.

In a wide-ranging discussion on Eusebius on TimesLIVE, ActionSA's mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, engaged host Eusebius McKaiser on his vision for the city.

Mashaba suggested he would prioritise both a skills audit and a lifestyle audit upon occupying the position of Johannesburg mayor in order to break corrupt patronage networks within the municipality. He explained what his views are on coalition politics and vehemently ruled out the possibility of a coalition with the ANC at any level of government. While open to local government coalitions with other parties, he also ruled out coalitions with the EFF at a national level in 2024 because of ideological differences.

Mashaba also responded to probing questions about how he might handle the effects of national energy insecurity and infrastructure decay.He ended the discussion with his reaction to the Constitutional Court judgment that declared police raids within the inner city, under his leadership, to have been unconstitutional.