THE THICK END OF THE WEDGE
PETER BRUCE: SA must pick a role in East-side story
The sourpuss faces of some of President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet when Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan got up to deliver his budget speech on Wednesday were a study in the durability of the inner child. The ministers of local government, social development, women, intelligence and small business, among others, just sat there and looked at their phones, while their colleagues and the opposition cheered Gordhan to the roof. They may have no manners, but at least their boss, Zuma, also got up and clapped heartily, though he could hardly not have. Had there been an open vote in Parliament there and then, Zuma would no longer be head of state. Looking down on our democracy from afar must sometimes be a little like watching Donald Trump go to war with US intelligence and cosy up to Russia at the same time. I don’t know if our foreign minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, stood up or stayed sitting when Gordhan rose to speak. My guess would be she stayed down with the rest of the Zuma ultra-loyalis...
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