US historian Arthur Schlesinger once remarked that leadership makes the world go round but love smooths the way. Madiba Magic – serving tea to adversaries – certainly smoothed South Africa’s way. But it was Nelson Mandela the tough politician who persuaded right-wing Afrikaners to participate i.
The unexpected death of Ian Liebenberg on 11 October terminated a life grounded in the belief and hope that open conversation may continue – a conversa continua.
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What becomes of the South African political landscape as the ANC’s self-defeating disease of incumbency takes its inevitable toll? What becomes of the South African political landscape as the ANC’s self-defeating disease of incumbency takes its inevitable toll?