President Cyril Ramaphosa is either out to prove he was never the Vladimir Putin stooge some of our right-leaning analysts have painted him as, or he really has it in for Donald Trump.
When the US and the rest of the Western world were busy condemning Putin’s Russia for invading Ukraine, McBuffalo was rubbing Washington up the wrong way by calling Russia South Africa’s “ally” and refusing to condemn the illegal occupation.
Now that Trump is best buddies with Putin and Washington is negotiating a deal with the Kremlin that would allow Russia to annex almost 20% of Ukraine, our Cupcake is playing chommies with Volodymyr Zelensky by inviting him to the country for a state visit.
Whatever Cupcake’s motives, Hogarth hopes he remembers his army can barely fight off a rickety rebel army in the DRC. Given that is so, what chance does South Africa stand in taking on both Trump and Putin at the same time?
Not Snap happy
At least our president can still rely on the EU if things do go pear-shaped with the Trump-Putin partnership The Economist this week labelled “Europe’s worst nightmare”. At a G20 meeting of foreign ministers held on the outskirts of Soweto this week, Putin’s right-hand man and Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov learnt the hard way that, even though things have changed for the better for Russia when it comes to relations with Washington, the rest of the Western hemisphere still regards the Kremlin with outright hostility.
In the true South African spirit of ubuntu and Rainbowism, our international relations department thought it would be a great idea for all the visiting ministers to be captured in a photograph together at the end of the meeting. But the Western Europeans were not raised by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, and would have none of that kumbaya stuff while Russia was still dropping missiles on Ukraine. They flatly refused to be in the same snap with Lavrov.
Short-term finance
Hogarth’s colleagues in the media are so South Africa-centric that, if anything goes wrong here, they think the country will be a global laughing stock. This was certainly the case when, for the first time since 1994, the finance minister was forced to delay his budget speech because cabinet colleagues were unhappy with a proposed VAT hike. Fittingly, finance minister Enoch Godongwana was asked at a press conference whether the postponement would be an embarrassment for him when he hosted other G20 finance ministers later this week.
“These people that are going to be here — they’ve got their own problems,” retorted Godongwana. “One of my colleagues told me he’s going to land here on [February 23], his country will be voting, and probably his party is going to lose while he’s here.”
Hogarth would have added that some of these finance ministers come from countries where a finance minister’s term can be as short at 58 days. But then again, we hold the record for having had a “weekend special” for a finance minister. Eish.
Giving his 10c worth
Still on journos and their questions, a scribe asked Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago if there were plans to replace the 10c and 20c coins with 50c as the lowest currency domination.
Governor number 10 seemed irked by the question, but used wit to hide his annoyance.
“The budget is about R2-trillion, and we have to answer questions about 50c?” he asked as the Imbizo Media Centre burst into laughter.
Nothing comes to those who wait
Earlier, National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza told the house the GNU cabinet had decided to postpone tabling the budget. This prompted opposition parties — led by the EFF and the MK party — to object and demand that Godongwana come and table his budget as planned. But the GNU parties pushed back, claiming their decision was final.
It was sports minister Gayton McKenzie who gave the message loud and clear. McKenzie told the house the GNU was functioning well and hailed Godongwana for consulting extensively. “These ones they wouldn’t know,” he said, pointing to the EFF benches. “They are a government in waiting. We are the government, and we’re taking charge. Amen.”
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