GARETH VAN ONSELEN: Fikile Mbaloser’s silent coup
The clown is now playing to a well-armed audience. There is no more dangerous kind of fool than one with power
In a pinch-me-I-am-dreaming moment, Fikile Mbaloser has managed to produce yet another set of remarks destined for Hall of Demagogic Infamy, in which he is already well represented. Because he is a clown, one who thinks politics is showmanship, not governance, his antics are generally indulged as the sort of egomaniacal chest-thumping one might expect of, say, a Hlaudi Motsoeneng. All very comical. Only he now has 180,000 people with guns looking to him for leadership. So when he says to them, "Even if you do not have a warrant of arrest‚ slap them. Break the law progressively and let me worry about court cases‚" even those who follow him for his theatrics alone, should take a minute to consider the following: Here is a man, chosen from 55-million South Africans to uphold and embody the rule of law, who has now told the police — the actual agents of justice — to ignore it; indeed, to consciously violate it, and to indulge in a bit of torture and physical abuse along the way. Effecti...
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