http://theleoafricanus.com/2008/06/12/nelson-mandelas-right-hand-woman/ Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:43:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://theleoafricanus.com/2008/06/12/nelson-mandelas-right-hand-woman/#comment-444 Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:28:55 +0000 http://leoafricanus.wordpress.com/?p=686#comment-444 John Carlin, I understand, used to be something of an expert on South Africa during the apartheid years. Today, from what I have gathered during the last 8 months reading his shoddy works, he is more interested in name dropping politician X or minister Y with whom he enjoys sharing a bottle of Chardonnay. Like so many journalists writing on Africa of a particular generation, they all jumped on the bandwagon of liberation and many did a damned fine job. But today, they – like many liberation politicians – have become corrupted. They cease to think – preferring to drink – and pat each other on the back about the good ol’ days and how ‘we’ more or less ‘won the war’. His coverage of the ANC Polokowane conference at the end of last year was dreadful: he trades on his name and his past, and South Africa’s past, but fails to listen and reflect on the present. It would be good for South Africa if he stuck to Posh and Beckham full time and ceased to dip back and forth into their beloved country.

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