South Africa, World
While you were sleeping: 6th February 2017
Fairytale end to Super Bowl 51, Trump rails against judiciary, and Canadian hits umpire in the eye at Davis Cup.
Monday, 6th February 2017
“It’s amazing how a little tomorrow can make up for a whole lot of yesterday.”
John Guare
STORY OF THE DAY
Salvage Mission: ANC’s search for a rescue plan in its year of reckoning
By RANJENI MUNUSAMY
Aside from President Jacob Zuma, there are not many people who will claim that all is well in the ANC. The results of last year’s local government elections forced the ANC to confront the possibility that it might lose power in 2019. There has since been an array of interventions to deal with the crisis. From holding a national consultative conference (NCC), asking the ANC national executive committee (NEC) to step down, forcing Zuma to leave office and giving greater powers to ANC branches, there are plenty of proposals on the table. For the ANC to survive, one or more of these strategies needs to work before the year is out.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
Amidst the expensive adverts and Lady Gaga half-time show, there was a football Super Bowl championship played between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots. The Patriots defeated the Falcons 34-28. With a first half 21-3 lead that seemed utterly unassailable, the Falcons let Tom Brady score 31 unanswered points. The Patriots returned from the brink, securing the first overtime victory in Super Bowl history, and launching Brady in the stratosphere of sports history.
Super Bowl ads bring politics into the game
Mexican avocados and Airbnb’s #Weaccept advertisements broadcast while Mike Pence could do nothing but watch provided excellent airtime during the Super Bowl. Airbnb’s advert portraying people of various races and genders was coupled with the line: “No matter who you are, where you are from, who you love or who you worship, we all belong.”
Despite having a supposed weekend “vacation” from his busy first two weeks, President Donald Trump took the time to criticise another branch of government. Speaking in relation to a court ruling against Trump’s Muslim ban, and again of an appeal upholding it, the president stated that he “cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril”. Apparently, nobody told Trump about the independence of the judiciary.
Britain secured a quarter-final spot against France in the Davis Cup after Canada’s Denis Shapovalov hit an umpire in the eye. A frustrated Shapovalov hit a ball away from the court in anger, striking chair umpire Arnaud Gabas in the eye. The young Canadian later apologised to Gabas, but by then the game had
IN NUMBERS
1,025,000
The dollar cost of a
FACTS OF THE DAY
Today in 1918 British women over the age of 30
The Hindenburg had a smoking room.
FEATURED ARTICLES
OPINIONISTAS
Life Esidimeni and agents of benevolence: How the non-governmental became governmental
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The three ways logic should shape Africa’s transnational policy development space in 2017
A column by BABATUNDE FAGBAYIBO
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