Now it is up to President Ramaphosa to sign the Public Service Amendment Bill into law.

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9. Finally, I do think that social media has lost its ability to enable democratic debate given its polarising effects. Globally we are either going to have to shut it down or subject it to regulation. If we don’t do this, we will be prisoners of the narrative of the extremes.🙏🏾

8. None of this should detract from the need of all minorities to be protected or the need to condemn the corruption & incompetence of the ANC. But these necessary advocacy of rights and criticisms must never succumb to crude racism or a call for separatism. This is what I see.

7. SA is not immune to these ideas:previously I have written about how the EFF embodies these ideas & behaviour. I now see similar trends with AfriForum,although this is expressed through an admiration for Trump & a support for Apartheid SA. Again, see some of the tweets on my X.

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6. Fascism:these ideas are on the rise across the world including in Europe and the US.What are these ideas: an extreme exclusionary ethnic or national identity, a focus on the cult of the individual leader & a propensity to violence.This rises in contexts of economic insecurity.

5. Both the EFF & AfriForum then mobilise on the baser of human instincts; fear & hatred of the other. They both intend to polarise; they talk to different communities but their behaviour & intentions are similar. It is behaviour that ultimately defines them, not their rhetoric.

4. This is why I say EFF is similar to AfriForum. If you read earlier responses on my twitter account when I had run ins with the EFF, they were exactly the same;racist remarks,threats, foul language; all intended to silence. In both cases, the leadership never called it out.

3. Separately, a lot of comments on my X are largely foul mouthed. They defend this on the basis of Free speech; but threats & demeaning comments are not an expression of rights but are rather meant to silence and bully others into submission. They undermine democracies.

2. I start here because I want to underscore that I don’t use the words pejoratively. I really believe that they describe many of those who respond to my comments. Look at the responses on my X account: anti-Muslim remarks, anti-Black remarks, all of which are essentially racist.

1. Hi Barry,You raise an important issue of how we debate & whether I am stifling it. Let me respond because I share your concern and desire for a more open society. Let’s start with basics:open societies must have free debate,but they must also call out behaviour for what it is.

2. The rise of right wing govts worldwide has enabled the surfacing of fascists & racists across the world. They represent a vision that will propel the world to war. We, committed to the building of a collective global community, need to win this battle for hearts & minds.

1. The responses to my comments on AfriForum,the ANC & SA are revealing.1st,the language of the foot-soldiers & leaders of AfriForum is no different from that of the EFF.2nd,the call for self-determination is for many a desire for a return to Apartheid. The racists have returned.

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7. In this simple capability, our independence would be guaranteed. But this capability requires an excellent public service & a competitive resilient economy. History does not excuse or obviate the need for this. This is what our leadership & intelligentsia need to understand.

6. If there is a lesson from this, it is capabilities are as important as is growth for inclusion.Political Independence requires economic capability so that we are not dependent on any one political actor or nation. If one pressurises us, we must have something that others need.

5. Both elements compromised us deeply as a nation. Our economic & political capabilities have eroded significantly. Under attack by Trump, we have no political agency, reduced to politically begging , instead of having sufficient economic capacity & leverage to stand on our own.

4. At the heart of this failure is: 1st, a deep scepticism of excellence in the ANC & in parts of the intelligentsia & a decoupling of capabilities from inclusion & transformation, and 2nd, an interpretation of empowerment as enrichment -BEE- enabling widespread corruption.

3. Yet our disgust at AfriForum/Solidarity must not prevent us from recognising the failure of the ANC.This failure is not in some mythical genocide portrayed by these far right deployees. It is in the destruction of economic prospects & collapse of govt services to citizens.

2. If this organisation was in the US and did the same with a foreign government - let’s say’s China - they would either be arrested & imprisoned or actively constrained. Does this not demonstrate the quality of the democracy and the state of civil liberties in the US & SA?