IN THEIR WORDS

Quotes of the year

“The problem with South Africa is that it’s too free. Thugs do as they please. They walk into our shops wielding guns and knives.” — Johiy

Khan, a Bangladeshi shopowner in Emdeni, Soweto, after the death of Siphiwe Mahori, 14, who was killed in Snake Park on January 19 by a foreign shopowner, January 22. “I think it will actually close a chapter in our history because we’ve come a long way and I think his release will just once again help with the reconciliation process because there’s still a lot of things that we need to do as a country.” — Sandra

Mama, on the release on parole of Eugene de Kock, who in 1992 killed her husband Glenack Mama, January 30. “I pray that those whom he hurt, those from whom he took loved ones, will find the power within them to forgive him. Forgiving is empowering for the forgiver and the forgiven — and for all the people around them. But we can’t be glib about it; it’s not easy.” — Desmond Tutu, on De Kock’s parole, January 30. “I apologise unconditionally, to South Africans, to parliament and Honourable Julius Malema for any hurt or harm I may have caused.” —

Baleka Mbete, in a statement on her “cockroach” speech, February 18. “When foreigners look at them, they say ‘let us exploit the nation of idiots’ . . . We ask that the immigrants must take their bags and go where they came from.” — King Goodwill

Zwelithini, in his Pongola speech,

March 15. “Our freedom cannot be given to us — we must take it. We want to be clear that our only regret is that we did not take the statue down ourselves.” — Kealeboga Ramaru, member of the #RhodesMustFall movement, after the Cecil John Rhodes statue was removed from UCT campus, April 9. “No, there is not a race war coming. The reason is simple: the overwhelming majority of South Africans, black and white, believe in a middle path somewhere between reconciliation and social justice.” —

Jonathan Jansen, on the Rhodes controversy, April 10. “In every white person there’s an element of Adolf Hitler . . . I love Adolf Hitler.” — Mcebo Dlamini, the then president of the Wits SRC, in a Facebook post, April 25. “I did not say we’re not going to address this issue. I’m saying this is not the forum . . . There is no problem by the way. No problem.” —

Danny Jordaan, at a news conference after his election as mayor of Port Elizabeth,to discuss duringthe Fifa which briberyhe refused scandal, May 28. “Thethe extent conduct that of theythe respondentshave failed to to take president steps of to Sudan,arrest and Omar detain al-Bashir,the is inconsistent with the constitution of the Republic of South Africa.” —

Judge President Dunstan Mlambo,

in the Pretoria High Court, June 24. “It is a commission that has decided nothing. It is inconclusive, no one is held responsible.” —Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, on the Farlam inquiry into Marikana, June 28. “If [Riah] Phiyega’s hands are dripping with the workers’ blood, so are those of the president who employed her, very well aware that she had neither experience nor skills to head police operations.” — Zwelinzima

Vavi, on the Farlam report, June 28. “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her . . . wherever.” — Donald

Trump, referring to Fox News’s Megyn Kelly, who moderated a debate between candidates for the Republican nomination, August 7. “From every land may a single voice be raised: no to war, no to violence and yes to dialogue, yes to peace. With war, you always lose. The only way to win a war is to not make it.” — Pope Francis, in his speech on the 70th anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 9. “No one goes into your face and says, ‘You’re not welcome here.’ No one says that you don’t belong here. But it’s just that the structure, and the environment itself, says that I’m not welcome here.” Lindokuhle Patiwe, a UCT student, in remarks to the New York Times, September 8. “The culture of the place [UCT] feels white. The architecture is a European, Oxbridge architecture. Obviously, the language of instruction is English. The culture of what’s held up to be excellent universities and excellent science, and what we emulate and aspire to be, are the Ivy League universities and European universities.” — Max Price, UCT vice-chancellor, on student protests in the New York Times, September 8. “It absolutely questions what makes us human. And I don’t think we know any more what does. This is like opening up Tutankhamen’s tomb.” — Lee Berger, discussing the discovery of Homo naledi fossils, September 10. “‘Guys, why is there no agricultural activity taking place?’ So their response was: ‘The white people have left, there’s no jobs.’ I said: ‘OK . . . but we gave this land back to you, the community.’ They said: ‘No, you are misunderstanding the situation. The white people have left!’ ” — Tito

Mboweni, describing a land reform project in a lecture at the Wits School of Economics and Business Sciences, October 13. “Women are questioning why it is when they speak in their feminine pitch that there isn’t as big an uproar [of support] as when a man speaks in his masculine voice.” — Nompendulo Mkatshwa, incoming president of the Wits SRC, in an interview with Destiny.com during the #FeesMustFall protests, October 21. “The ground has shifted significantly in the last few days, and there is great excitement about what it means; what kind of a new order we can build out of this.” — Max

du Preez, on the student protests,

October 24. “My reading is that there is no alliance; there is one organisation existing inside the integuments of erstwhile independent organisations, but today to talk about Cosatu as an independent organisation from the ANC or the SACP I think is a delusion.” — Kgalema Motlanthe, in a Business Day interview, November 2. “I’m going to lose, that’s for sure.” —

Barry Roux, to Gerrie Nel at the end of the Oscar Pistorius appeal, November 3. “Let us now all get on with our lives. I’m sure she’ll [Reeva] be able to rest now, as well.” — Barry Steenkamp, reacting to the Supreme Court ruling on Pistorius, December 3. “You ain’t no Muslim, bruv.” Remark shouted by an unidentified bystander at the man who stabbed a commuter in a London underground station, December 5. “Nelson Mandela was no sell-out. These peacetime revolutionaries who were never in the trenches have the temerity to open their mouths

about him.” — Cyril Ramaphosa, on Julius Malema’s comments about Mandela, December 5. “In the current challenging economic environment, the decision to change a successful minister of finance is difficult to understand.”

Maria Ramos, Barclays Africa CEO, reacting to the sacking of Nhlanhla Nene, December 9. “I certainly believe that if ANC members are worth their salt, they have to start looking very carefully and introspectively . . . about our roles in this organisation and what we are giving consent to by allowing this president to operate as though he is completely unaccountable. This is the final straw.” — Barbara Hogan, on the sacking of Nene in a speech on December 11. “Her [Dudu Myeni’s] relationship with the president is purely professional, and is based on the running of the foundation . . . Rumours about a romance and a child are baseless and are designed to cast aspersions on the president.” — A

statement from The Presidency, December 12. “I believe this moment can be a turning point for the world. [This is] the best chance we have to save the one planet we’ve got.” — Barack

Obama, on the climate deal reached in Paris, December 13. “We see you. Out in your numbers. The ‘rainbow nation’ rearing its ugly head and chanting ‘Zoomer must

fall’.” — Shaeera Kalla, former Wits SRC president, in a tweet accompanied by picture of mainly white marchers taking part in a ZumaMustFall protest, December 16. “The Turks decided to lick the Americans in a certain place.” —

Vladimir Putin, on the downing of a Russian military jet by Turkey at a news conference, December 17. — Compiled by Anton Ferreira

“This case involves a human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.” — Judge Eric Leach, handing down the Supreme Court of Appeal decision that Oscar Pistorius is guilty of murder, not culpable homicide, December 3

“What actually came out in court is not the truth. He got angry, she went off to the toilet, locked herself inside, and then him pulling out the gun and shooting.” — Barry Steenkamp, in an interview with Australian TV, August 24

“Gogo, thank you very much. Without you, I would not be anywhere near where God has taken me. I owe all that I am to you.” — Desmond Tutu, speaking to his wife, Leah, when they renewed their wedding vows on their 60th wedding anniversary, July 2

“We have seen that we are part of a police state.” — Julius Malema, after white shirts forced him and other EFF MPs out of parliament during the state of the nation address, February 12

“No one will dig old monkey bones to back up a theory that I was once a baboon.” — Zwelinzima Vavi, tweeting in response to the discovery of Homo naledi, September 12

“We all need to work . . . because if we don’t, we will continue to have the cockroaches like the Malemas.” — Baleka Mbete, when she was addressing an ANC rally in Mafikeng, February 14

“So we are looking after the corpse and you have the statue. I don’t know what you think we should do. Dig him up?” — Robert Mugabe, referring to Cecil John Rhodes during a visit to SA, April 8

“Every year the problems are getting worse. We are at the limits. If I may use a strong word, I would say that we are at the limits of suicide.” — Pope Francis, referring to the issue of climate change, November 30

“I am calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the US until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” — Donald Trump, campaign statement, December 7

“Thanks to some crafty journalism my family and I have spent the whole day trying to figure out if one of us died. #awkward.”— Trevor Noah, tweeting in reaction to a Sunday Times report that one of his cousins had died, May 24