FERIAL HAFFAJEE: Cyril. The Money. And the Kim Kardashian cows
Old-style socialist rhetoric has a grip on the South African narrative
Ankole cattle are the Kim Kardashians of the bovine world. Pouty, curvaceous and gorgeous, they love posing. At Everard Read gallery in Johannesburg, an exhibition shows them off in glorious photographs. President Cyril Ramaphosa is a keen breeder of Ankole cattle, and some of his cows are on display at the exhibition. In a book about the cattle, he wrote: "I was intrigued and in awe and fell in love with these creatures immediately. President [Yoweri] Museveni of Uganda and I exchanged a few pleasantries, but I couldn't help myself. 'Please,' I said, 'You must tell me about these cattle. They are simply beautiful.'" The president has many nicknames, but the most common is "Buffalo" - a reference to his matching passion for the horned beasts. I've covered black empowerment for as long as I've been a journalist, and I was there when Ramaphosa made his first foray into wealth accumulation in 1996. As the most prominent member of the National Empowerment Consortium, it was Ramaphosa wh...
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