GARETH VAN ONSELEN: The mayor with a thousand faces
He knows a lot of phrases, does Mashaba — things such as ‘right-wing’ and ‘liberal’, which he throws about with abandon
There is something about Herman Mashaba’s particular brand of hypocrisy. It is delivered with a confidence that suggests, internally, he has fully inculcated whatever new truth he advocates, as if it had always been the truth and he its brave and faithful keeper. It was always thus, is the impression you are left with.
Conviction is the strongest currency in modern politics. Any conviction will do. That it has become so powerful at the expense of truth and honesty matters little. People are drawn these days to strong views, like a moth to a flame. And so we live in a great age of demagoguery, the world over. ..
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