Michael Beaumont is unserious: why Zille should be Joburg mayor
ActionSA’s campaign against Helen Zille is putting personal grievances ahead of the interests of Johannesburg. The DA should not abandon its own candidate-selection process to
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Is the ANC dead?
In this episode of The Daily Friend Live, John Endres and Hermann Pretorius consider the state of the South African Left, the tantalising possibility of a Zille-Malema legal battle, and the future of the ANC as a political party in
The DA’s dodgy data on dubious deaths
The DA loves to catch its rivals out on bad statistics, but when Greenpeace offered an alarming number on air pollution, it swallowed it whole. Last week, I urged readers to vote DA, notwithstanding some “howlers” in the party’s manifesto.
Phosa and Van Staden mark Armistice Day 2026
A coincidence on a portentous anniversary is perhaps the briefest way to describe two events that took place in SA on 11 November 2026. Each year for the last five years, the FW de Klerk Foundation has marked the anniversary
How was your voting experience?
The 2026 Local Government Election results are out, and South Africans all over the country are holding their breath as the over 100 hung councils negotiate coalition agreements. Despite the uncertainty, there are already some reasons to be optimistic. For
We do not hate celebrities enough
Ten years ago, I was in a hotel lift in central London when a ‘celebrity’ stepped in. Fair and jowly, of immediate recognition but no talent, he swore loudly into his phone, most likely ruining a subordinate’s day for the
IRR report underscores popular support for credible value-for-money procurement
Over the next two weeks, the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) will be sharing its latest report on value-for-money procurement with parties in the seven hung metropolitan municipalities and the largest hung municipalities across the country, urging them to put
Nvidia – the honeypot, the patsy, the smuggler, the spy and the president
The thing about the Jensen Huang affair is that it is just so clichéd. Embarrassing (especially for him, and for those of us who might rather look away). This story is old and worn but never, ever seems to leave
The enduring promise of constitutional democracy
The following is the text of my FW de Klerk Memorial Lecture 2026, which I delivered at an event co-hosted in Cape Town last evening by the FW de Klerk Foundation and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung to mark the 30th