A follow-up article on the Chumani Maxwele incident, and the implications it has for free speech in South Africa, appeared in the Durban Mercury (22/02/10) and the Cape Times (23/02/10). My original text can be found here.

February is turning out to be a rather uncomfortable month for South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma. First we had Babygate, and now it appears that some of his goons have taken to abusing and arresting those whom they believe to not be showing sufficient respect to the Father of the Nation (or at least, a growing proportion of it). Last week, JZ gave a completely uninspired State of the Nation address, which included the embarrassment of being laughed at by some parliamentarians when he mentioned the father of his most recent (known) lover/ prospective wife.  And, to top it all off, it appears that the trade union Solidarity’s campaign to highlight the dissatisfaction felt by some (many? most?) South Africans on the Government’s response to crime “has no basis in fact”, at least according to Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya. Continue reading »

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