Hogarth: 22 January 2012

Hogarth does not suffer fools lightly and is compulsive reading for the millions of South Africans who share this intolerance.

Mbeki stirs brains dormant since 2009 to life

FORMER president Thabo Mbeki delivered a classic pipe-smoker of a speech in Stellenbosch this week on the topic of knowledge.

Hogarth felt a twinge of nostalgia at reading paragraphs such as: "This raises the important issue of epistemology, of the distinction between what society 'knows' and assumes constitutes 'knowledge', and what can logically and independently be established as 'the truth', and therefore 'objective reality', regardless of whether we know it or not."

Areas of Hogarth's brain dormant since 2009 were stirred into life once more.

But another phrase caught Hogarth's eye. Mbeki argued that knowledge needed "unrestricted freedom to express itself, able to challenge established and generally accepted truths, including through all the available media".

Was that a subtle comment on the Protection of Information Bill which has been opposed by universities such as the one at which Mbeki was delivering his speech?

Logic reigns supreme

YOU'VE got to admire the ANC kindergarten. Unless Hogarth is mistaken, they have threatened to campaign for the right of Limpopo to continue to mismanage its finances.

To summarise the position articulated by the youth league this week: the national government should not intervene in Limpopo because other provinces are just as bad.

And, league spokesman Floyd Shivambu told the Mail & Guardian: "The intervention by government in Limpopo is solely intended to influence the ANC elective conference this year - nothing else."

The fact that the Eastern Cape Department of Education, the Free State Department of Transport and Gauteng's health department are under administration appears to have eluded Shivambu.

And the fact that money was being paid out to contractors, sometimes up to eight times a month, without invoices or tenders to back anything up, is just fine with the league.

If Hogarth didn't know any better, he would speculate that some of the league's leaders were beneficiaries of these contracts.

Hang on a minute ...

Minority of sweetness and light

HOGARTH is still mourning the passing, in December, of the Bengal Tiger - but even without his electric presence, Amichand Rajbansi's Minority Front continues to provide some much-needed colour to political life in the rainbow nation.

Hogarth was not in the least surprised when the Durban party announced his widow, Shameem Rajbansi, as the new leader this week. It seems only fitting that there should be a Rajbansi somewhere on the political stage.

Of her appointment by "general consensus", Shameem had this to say: "We use a very traditional way which does not cause any chaos. Other parties can learn a lot from us. There was no lobbying."

But were there any other candidates for the job?

The only other possibility, Visvin Reddy, who had abandoned the party for the ANC and then the DA, must have been kicking himself. A little loyalty could have gone a long way.

When wives square off ...

STILL on wives and political parties, Hogarth had a good chuckle when a young scribe posed a hypothetical question: who would succeed the dancing president in the ANC if the Minority Front scenario were to be followed? I guess the country would have to brace itself for four splinter groupings of the ruling party.

Now that would be a reality show worth airing on prime-time television.

IFP's toes of terror

CHECKING his inbox, Hogarth was greeted by a statement screaming "IFP KZN RESHUFFLES SHADOW MEC'S". This, we were told, was to "strengthen [the IFP] position" and to "keep the ruling party on its toes".

KwaZulu-Natal ANC chairman Zweli Mkhize must be quaking in his boots.

Hogarth thought reshuffles were reserved for real governments.

• Write to hogarth@sundaytimes.co.za