Eusebius on TimesLIVE

In this latest episode of Eusebius on TimesLIVE, there emerges a diverse range of views about how to evaluate finance minister Enoch Godongwana's maiden national budget.

In this edition of Eusebius on TimesLIVE, Hennie van Vuuren, director of Open Secrets, explains why, despite excellent work done by the state capture inquiry, the commission headed by Justice Raymond Zondo could have been more nuanced in at least six respects. 

Eusebius McKaiser and Van Vuuren discuss how some of the Zondo commission’s analyses were important case studies of parts of the state, but did not necessarily lead to adequate systems analysis to enable citizens to understand the general methods of the looters, with a view to developing early warning systems in future.

TimesLIVE contributor and analyst Eusebius McKaiser examined president Cyril Ramaphosa's state of the nation address.

He argues that the president delivered his speech more persuasively than usual, with apparent control over the detail of the narrative, and with admirable speaker energy, notwithstanding major crises within both the African National Congress and the state.

However, McKaiser warns against setting the political leadership bar too low. He pushes back against those praising the president for his "honesty", and for taking responsibility for the various governance weaknesses under his leadership.

In Eusebius on TimesLIVE, former DA leader Athol Trollip explained how his respite from politics, and venturing into consultancy, allowed him to see anew the experiences of ordinary South Africans across towns and cities in the Eastern Cape and elsewhere.

Having observed the affects of state capture, he decided to re-enter politics after engaging ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba on some crucial questions about his party’s constitution, and hot button issues such as immigration and the accusation of xenophobia levelled at Mashaba and the party.

In a wide-ranging interview on Eusebius on TimesLIVE, former Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi explained why he did not vote for his now former party, the DA, in last year’s local government elections.

He was at pains to explain to the host, Eusebius McKaiser, how he slowly started feeling estranged from the DA after policy shifts that did not resonate with his political and personal convictions. In particular, he says, the abandonment by the party of using race as a proxy for disadvantage entrenched his conviction that there is a lack of empathy from the party, including the leader John Steenhuisen, of the lived experiences of black people.

Baloyi also revealed to McKaiser that he had begun to feel like a poster child for the party, but never really “seen” by the party leadership. This manifested, he said, in a refusal to engage him intellectually on his views about the party, and he answered in the affirmative when asked by the host whether he is implying that the party had “infantilised” him despite his record of leadership and years of service.

The latter part of the interview focuses on critical questions about why Baloyi joined ActionSA instead. When pressed by McKaiser on similarities in the political convictions between his new leader Herman Mashaba and the politics of DA leaders Helen Zille and Steenhuisen, Baloyi tried to make a case for differences between the political vehicles.

In this episode of Eusebius on TimesLIVE, he explores the claim by some critics of Neil Young that the rockstar has abandoned his commitment to free speech. Young's music was taken off Spotify after he had given them an ultimatum to either kick podcaster Joe Rogan off their platform for disseminating false information about vaccines or to remove his music if they were not prepared to censure the popular podcast host. They sided with their biggest money-making podcaster.

Interestingly, many have argued that Young's ultimatum to Spotify constitutes intolerance towards those who happen to hold a different view to him. McKaiser links the Neil Young case study to an aspect of the debate about minister Lindiwe Sisulu's column in which she had attacked the judiciary, the constitution and the rule of law. Some of her defenders had also claimed that her critics have abandoned any respect for freedom of speech. In this episode, McKaiser argues that it is both unhelpful and inaccurate to claim that speech rights are at issue in these debates. He explains how the real issue is about whether the content of Rogan's podcast and of Sisulu's columns are reckless or harmful. While we can disagree on the latter issue, argues McKaiser, it is not correct to frame such criticism of Rogan or of Sisulu as a slide towards authoritarianism.

How should white people respond to their positionality in a world in which anti-black racism proliferates? How should men respond to their positionality in a world in which patriarchy proliferates?

What does it mean to be an ally of black people? What does it mean to be an ally of women? What are the true requirements of ubuntu, and what action steps should be taken by allies to truly be productive in helping to smash racism and patriarchy.

This episode of In Eusebius in TimesLIVE examines both male privilege and white privilege. It features Sue de Groot, deputy features editor of Sunday Times. We explain our respective unearned privileges and engage critically on the wider issues that flow from there.

Eusebius discussed Black Consciousness, liberation theology and white liberals with Harvard University doctoral candidate and author Panashe Chigumadzi. In this latest episode of Eusebius on TimesLIVE, Chigumadzi starts off by explaining why it is important for black people to not be distracted by anti-black racism, puzzling through the conundrum that racism cannot be avoided in analysis and activism but that, nevertheless, aspects of the justice project requires white people to do work on and amongst themselves without the presence of black people.

In this week's edition of Eusebius on TimesLIVE, Eusebius offers some initial insights, as TimesLIVE contributor and analyst, into part one of the state capture report.

He explains the difference between ordinary corruption and state capture, and why it is crucial to understand the true nature of state capture which is worse than mere corruption.

He also argues that we should reckon, as a country, with the true total cost of state capture which includes the damaging of our constitutional architecture.

McKaiser ends his analysis by challenging civil society to reframe the question of whether or not there will be accountability as a first person question, "What will I do to hold the state and business accountable?" He agitates for civil society to leverage its collective agency to ensure that it is not business as usual now that we are empowered with the facts about what has been and is happening within the country.

In this riveting live discussion, contributor and analyst for TimesLIVE, Eusebius McKaiser, is joined by senior investigative journalist at the Sunday Times, Sabelo Skiti, and advocate Nicole Fritz, director of the Helen Suzman Foundation, to unpack the findings contained in the first report from the state capture inquiry.

The first part of the report was released on Tuesday afternoon. Was the state capture inquiry worth the time, effort and money poured into it, or was the inquiry chaired by acting chief justice Raymond Zondo yet another waste of state resources?