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INSISTING that apartheid is a cause of many of South Africa’s problems is not an excuse – it recognises reality. But it becomes an excuse when the people who mention apartheid’s influence have not done nearly enough to end it.

SOMETIMES, the voices we do not hear are – or should be – much louder than those we do.

EVEN those who hate the West in this country make it the centre of their universe. Which makes reasoned debate on the country’s dealings with the world much harder.

IT is fashionable in South Africa to trash democracy rather than to try to use it. Those who do this might care to look to Ecuador, where democracy may have just helped save the planet.

YOU know an election is on the horizon when parties begin making boastful claims about their support. But the most important voices in next year’s general election may be not the voices we hear but those we do not.

THIS country’s two biggest parties – and much of its elite – disagree on many issues. But they agree that too much democracy is dangerous.

EVERY now and then, we are reminded that the lives of most people in this country are of no interest to the national debate.

THESE DAYS, ‘fights for democracy’ are often not what they seem. A topical example is the citizens’ battle against the Israeli government’s attempt to control its courts, which offers a lesson for politics in this country.

PREVENTING the end of the world is not an important issue in this country’s politics. Nor is it an issue for most of its activists.