Not hitting it off
With the war in Iran not going according to plan, the Orange One seems to be turning on the US’s traditional allies. If he is not threatening to withdraw Washington from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), Donald Trump is mocking the heads of state in Western countries that have refused to join his war.
This week it was the turn of French President Emmanuel Macron, who has frustrated the Trump administration by consistently refusing to be drawn into the conflict with Tehran.
“I called up France,” the Orange One said during a function. “Macron, whose wife treats him extremely badly, is still recovering from a right to the jaw.”
Trump was referencing a video in which Macron’s wife, Brigitte Macron, appeared to strike her husband in the face aboard a presidential jet last year.
With a friend like Trump, do the other Nato leaders need enemies?
What’s in a name?
Nato’s failure to come to the US’s rescue as it searches for an “off-ramp” from the war seems to have caused confusion even among the most prestigious of American institutions.
The New York Times carried a prominent headline on Friday referring to Nato as the North American Treaty Organisation, prompting ridicule around the world.
To its credit, the newspaper did issue an apology and correct the headline — but not quickly enough to spare the US and its media a bout of geographical embarrassment.
Former red berets raise red flag
No political party was as offended as Africa Mayibuye by Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi’s appointment of EFF provincial chair Nkululeko Dunga as the new finance MEC.
The new political outfit, mostly made up of disgruntled former red berets and led by former EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu, was scathing in its criticism of the appointment, pointing to Dunga’s alleged failures as political head of finance in the Ekurhuleni municipality.
“His deployment to the provincial legislature is nothing short of reckless. Entrusting him with oversight of an even larger budget of R179.2bn is akin to rewarding failure and institutionalising mediocrity,” complained Mayibuye.
Strong words.
Hogarth, however, hopes the criticism is not just sour grapes. EFF leader Julius Malema previously failed to secure a deal with President Cyril Ramaphosa to install Shivambu as finance minister during coalition talks — something Panyaza has now managed for Dunga.
Plans shelved, suit wasted
Just days before the Gauteng cabinet reshuffle, newly appointed MK Party secretary-general Sibonelo Nomvalo arrived in Joburg and promptly announced the immediate disbandment of the party’s provincial structures.
This came in the middle of negotiations between Lesufi and provincial MKP leaders, aimed at securing Jacob Zuma’s party a seat or two in the provincial executive. The disbandment led Lesufi to shelve those plans.
Hogarth’s thoughts are with that MKP member of the provincial legislature who had already bought a new suit — or was it fresh army regalia? — in anticipation of his appointment.
Mabahambe... but not him
The Gauteng disbandment is said to have sparked such anger within MKP ranks that some members have written to senior party leaders accusing them of weakening the country’s third-largest political party.
“As members on the ground, we have taken a sober and revolutionary resolution: the national officials must be disbanded,” reads the document, according to media reports.
At first Hogarth thought these members were risking expulsion with their “Mabahambe — let them go!” approach. But it later emerged that the document’s authors also insist the Nkandla Crooner should remain as the sole party official and leader.
Is that not what he has said he wanted — to be a dictator? So perhaps these “disgruntled” members are simply on script.
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