DOOMED HOOK-UPS
Trump’s relationship with the Saudi crown prince was all about the money and no principle. It is about to collapse, as marriages of convenience do
What a week for the emergence of strange political bedfellows. No, I don’t mean the EFF’S “fraud”, I mean Floyd Shivambu’s contortions to extricate himself from the fact that his brother received R16m from the piggy bank, VBS Mutual, for “consulting services”.
I wonder how this young man escaped the clutches of those other great consulting firms, Trillian Capital, Mckinsey or Bain. He clearly learnt a lot from the three’s invoicing Mosiuoa Lekota must be chortling into his soup. When he and his smallanyana party, COPE, announced their partnership with Afriforum they were called sellouts. Well, guess who is selling out now. Zwelithini, who claims a constituency of eight million Zulus, rambled quite a bit when he made his announcement.
“The Zulu nation I’m talking about will not exist if we don’t have food … That’s why I’m asking Afriforum of the Boers to come and help us, as ... they are willing to work with me and my father’s people to uplift agriculture in our ... it can only end in tears.
Anyway, in the US, President Donald Trump invited his friend Kanye West to the White House. West is a rapper. He is big. He also happens to be one of the few prominent black supporters Trump has. West recently said slavery was a “choice” by black people.
So off he went for lunch with Trump. It was probably the first time that Trump had to watch as someone else went on a rant, saying his “Make America Great
Again” cap makes him feel like a superhero, that time doesn’t exist, that the solution to police brutality is love and that liberals distract black people by focusing on racism. Oh, and school is boring.
It will end in tears. Trump should know. Take his relationship with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. Trump and his son-in-law have flirted with MBS, as he is known, since walking into the White House two years ago. Bin Salman has in turn promised billions of dollars in investment and purchases of American arms. Last year the crown prince kidnapped Lebanon’s prime minister Saad Hariri, handed him a prewritten resignation speech and forced him to read it on television. Bin Salman has waged a brutal war against Yemen while jailing hundreds of fellow princes, businessmen and gender rights activists at home.
Trump mollycoddled him through all this. Now the Saudis are accused of killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The world is up in arms. Trump can’t ignore this one. That relationship was all about the money and no principle. It is about to collapse. As all marriages of convenience ultimately do.