LOOKING BACK ON 2017
● Looking forward to seeing the back of 2017? You wouldn’t be the only one. Here’s a last glance at some of the outstanding news personalities of the year.
In the US, a reality-show celeb with odd hair conned his way into the White House. Take a bow, Donald Trump, for bringing the world to within a tweet of calamity. Who needs nukes when you’ve got Twitter?
Not to be outdone, North Korea’s preppy Kim Jong-un also did his bit to make 2017 our last year on the planet, spraying the oceans around his country with missiles.
As if in tribute to the White House galoot’s penchant for making trouble by Twitter, Kim said: “Want to know what’s more destructive than a nuclear bomb? Words.”
Closer to home, in what has been called the “politest coup” in history, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe was persuaded to relinquish power — and not to his wife, Grace, either. She once vowed: “If God decides to take him, then we will field him as a corpse in the election.” That much will not come to pass.
The first respondent
Finally, back home, President Jacob Zuma sat stony-faced through the announcement that Cyril Ramaphosa — and not Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, his ex-wife — had won the ANC presidency.
Words matter, of course, but sometimes silence speaks the loudest.
Local news was dominated by, among other matters, Zuma’s run-ins with the courts. With the Constitutional Court having ruled last year that Zuma had failed in his duty to uphold the constitution and his oath of office, Zuma was given another roasting, this time by Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo.
In rejecting Zuma’s attempt to have former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report remedial action set aside, Mlambo said Zuma had shown “flagrant disregard” for the constitution. And he left him to scramble for several million rands to pay the legal costs of his failed application.
Deny, deny, deny
Earlier in the year, Zuma survived yet another vote of no confidence in parliament, with ANC MPs breaking ranks for the first time to vote against their chief.
Another judge calling the politicians to account was former deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke. The way he presided over the Life Esidimeni arbitration hearings, set up after 141 mental patients lost their lives, should send a shiver up the spine of every politician who thinks their job is about signing pieces of paper with no regard for the lives affected.
Denials there were aplenty, which spoke volumes about our politicians’ talent for self-preservation and their limited familiarity with accountability.
Not to be outdone, retail giant Steinhoff showed that the private sector is as adept at squandering other people’s money as the state. Billions have been lost in this scandal.
Expect no one to accept the blame, and move on to 2018. Things can only improve.