GARETH VAN ONSELEN: Fikile Mbaloser: Lord of the Losers
Police Minister Fikile Mbalula blames Bafana for South Africa’s desperate state, but he’s the problem
Fresh from a total and utter international debacle in which Grace Mugabe managed to evade arrest but also a court appearance and every border patrol in South Africa, all on "red alert", Police Minister Fikile Mbaloser recently shared a few thoughts about losing. Again. He is profoundly experienced in the subject. As sports minister, he lost the Commonwealth Games even when South Africa was the only country bidding to host the competition. In doing so, he lost R118m to boot. That takes some doing. So, he knows what he is talking about. Losing is infused into his political DNA. He is Lord of the Losers. Not that he knows that. "We are negotiating from a position of strength," he said in 2015 of South Africa’s position as sole remaining Commonwealth bidder, after Edmonton city withdrew. An hour-and-a-half late for the press conference this year, in which he announced he had successfully transformed that position of strength to one of weakness, he read out how and why South Africa had s...
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