Hogarth 11 March 2012

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

Victory is apparently not as certain as it seems

HOGARTH is glad that the courts have finally ruled on the Walmart saga - you know the one where the government tried to overturn a ruling of its own Competition Commission. Yes, it's complicated.

Perhaps even more complicated is the government's reaction to the ruling. The Economic Development Minister, Ebrahim Patel, welcomed the ruling, saying: "The Competition Appeals Court ruled on what we are looking for. That is a test that is applied in all transactions of this nature and a forum in which appropriate conditions can be established and result in a fact-based resolution. We have been able to achieve all three."

Great. But he also refused to rule out appealing against the decision in the Supreme Court, saying that was still being discussed with legal representatives.

Hogarth bets the lawyers will be recommending another round of litigation, which will result in further months of court time. All billed by the hour, of course.

Blank cheque in the post?

OR maybe not ... Patel was a little cagey about how much the whole affair was going to cost the taxpayer.

"The legal costs will still have to be computed, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Walmart costs were significantly higher."

Was that "still to be computed"? Shouldn't these sorts of costs be agreed on before going to court?

Boring, painful, sad ...

THE has-been former COPE MP who defected back to the ANC excitedly announced on Facebook that she was writing her autobiography.

"As I said on SAfm yesterday, [healing the open scar] ... tears, pain, suffering, perseverance, despair, sadness, smile, laughter, joy and comfort. It was not easy ... It's coming to your shelves soon. The story of Anele Mda."

Sounds to Hogarth like the reader might be experiencing the pain, suffering, despair ...

Does he have a bright future?

EXPELLED former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema appeared at the league's press conference inside Luthuli House wearing gold-rimmed dark sunglasses. While he sat there without uttering a word and left it to his kindergarten lieutenants to defend, Wee Julius kept his glasses on during the entire briefing.

Surely the future can't be that bright ... or is Hogarth missing something?

Get the right answers

FOREIGN Policy this week published a quiz asking readers to guess whether Republican candidate Rick Santorum or the Ayatollah Khamenei had made the following remarks. Can you guess the answers?

1. "We were put on this earth as creatures of God to have dominion over the earth."

2. "We believe in democracy and we also believe in freedom, but we do not believe in liberal democracy."

3. "Although the literal meaning of socialism is equitable distribution of wealth, it is associated with other concepts which we hate. Over time, socialism has come to be associated with certain things in society that are unacceptable to us."

4. "The radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness."

5. "This is not a political war at all. This is not a cultural war. This is a spiritual war."

And the answers are: 1, 4, 5 Santorum and 2, 3 Khamenei.

50 years ago ...

THIS comment by Stanley Uys in the Sunday Times of March 11 1962:

"We live in a period of violent abuse of the press, threats to press freedom, codes of conduct and the like, all designed to make life intolerable for us.

"Fourteen years of attacks on the opposition press are teeming to a climax now.

"This is the showdown. The reason is obvious: with events closing in on it fast, the Nationalist government is making its last bid for survival by trying to force the pace of 'white unity'."

• Write to hogarth@sundaytimes.co.za