Conversations With Gabriel

US Ambassador Leo Brent Bozell III says South Africa could become one of the biggest economic powers in the world, and every bit as successful as the United States, with the right policies. He points to the country's natural resources and tourism, and to the way it ended apartheid without a war.
He also says Pretoria has refused to condemn "Kill the Boer", to make rural crime a national priority, and to give mining and telecoms the same BEE equity-equivalent option as every other sector. Those were three of the five things Washington asked South Africa to do. South Africa agreed to the other two. It will not interfere with the US refugee programme for Afrikaners, and the fight over the Expropriation Act has been left to the courts.
Bozell says South Africa now has to make the next move, and that the next steps from the United States will not be good for South Africa. He explains why Starlink's offer to connect 500 schools for free was turned down, and why he says South Africa is siding with America's adversaries.
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Chapters:
0:00 Coming up
0:29 Why Trump hand-picked Bozell for South Africa
3:10 Why America should never have existed
9:33 How America became the strongest nation
12:03 Freedom, responsibility and American exceptionalism
15:19 Life in a country that celebrates success
20:04 Good guys, bad guys and spheres of influence
25:34 South Africa first, and inequality since apartheid
29:57 The three concerns and why Pretoria won't budge
33:10 What Washington wanted, and what Pretoria refused
38:54 Lurching toward America's adversaries
44:16 Starlink, 500 schools and the 30% demand
48:21 Haiti or America

Helen Zille, the DA's mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, tells Gabriel Makin that the city is not at the brink of the abyss but already over the edge, and that the DA will not stay in power at all costs. She explains why the least bad option after the 4 November election may be opposition rather than a coalition, why she does not believe corruption can be removed from Johannesburg with the ANC in government, and why she wants voters to consolidate behind the DA on both ballots so that the party can win 136 of the council's 270 seats. She also describes the city's finances, with residents owing Johannesburg R81 billion while the city owes its creditors R25 billion.
The episode opens with the campaign, the Blue Brigades and the WaterWaxx borehole in Protea, which the DA finished for R2.6 million after Joburg Water abandoned it. Helen and Gabriel then discuss whether she feels vindicated after years of being called a liability to the DA, her fight against critical race theory inside the party, and why the DA's support base is now roughly a third Black, a third white and a third coloured and Indian. She recalls Henry Kissinger's visit in 2010 and what it taught her about the DA's growth from 1.7% in 1994. The conversation then turns to the drug crisis in Johannesburg, the "doomsday coalition" already running the city, her account of why Herman Mashaba turned against her, the MK Party's crimen injuria case, and her role in breaking the story of Steve Biko's death.
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The Common Sense: https://www.thecommonsense.co.za
Chapters:
0:00 Coming up
0:31 The campaign and the Blue Brigades
2:31 WaterWaxx: water for R2.6 million, not R37 million
7:59 Does Helen Zille feel vindicated?
15:50 Why the stakes for South Africa were so high
21:21 A third, a third, a third: who votes DA
22:56 From 1.7% in 1994: Henry Kissinger's question
26:41 Why critics still call the DA a white party
28:00 The drug crisis breaking Johannesburg's families
31:30 Joburg is broke, and owed R81 billion
36:14 Coalition or opposition after the election?
38:55 Wealthy donors and the 136-seat majority
40:47 Should voters see a doomsday coalition govern?
44:27 ActionSA, Herman Mashaba and the EFF
49:42 The MK Party's crimen injuria case
51:45 Steve Biko and fighting apartheid
53:31 South Africa as humanity's pathbreaker

DA MP Mlondi Mdluli, the party's spokesperson on small business development, returns to Conversations with Gabriel, this time in the studio. He walks Gabriel Makin through the five reforms from his piece for The Common Sense: working capital that is not a bank loan, a real foothold in formal retail space, by-law enforcement that does not ruin livelihoods, a single front door for support, and a better-resourced competition watchdog. Gabriel presses him on whether the state should help small business or simply get out of its way. They turn to the October fuel price increase and a shrinking economy, and Gabriel asks why no party has claimed offshore oil and gas exploration as its cause. In the second half Mlondi describes life as a DA MP with a DA deputy minister inside the department he oversees, and running the DA's local election campaign in the Umzinyathi district of KwaZulu-Natal: the doorstep, the hung Endumeni council, why KZN has not followed the shift in black support seen elsewhere, and his predictions for 4 November.
Read Mlondi's article: https://www.thecommonsense.co.za/economics_and_policy/township-businesses-do-not-lack-ambition-government-red
Become a member for all the facts and analysis (R99/month): https://www.thecommonsense.co.za/subscribe
The Common Sense: https://www.thecommonsense.co.za
Chapters:
0:00 Township businesses and how South Africa defines a small business
3:20 Five reforms: capital, retail space, by-laws and one front door
8:42 Can a competition watchdog protect small business?
14:55 The October fuel price hike, the Strait of Hormuz and a shrinking economy
20:23 Offshore oil and gas: why no party claims it
22:55 A DA MP outside the department, a DA deputy minister inside it, and the KZN campaign
32:22 Why KwaZulu-Natal bucks the shift in black support for the DA
37:14 MK, coalitions and predictions for the 4 November election

Princy Mthombeni, chair of South Africans for Constitutional Reform, is back with Gabriel Makin for the third episode of The Royal Sense. Home Affairs is moving asylum applications online after the Constitutional Court ruling, and the minister says 95% of applications are rejected as unfounded. So why do so few people leave? Princy argues that South Africa's borders are wide open, that deportation is the law and is cheaper than keeping people here, and that the country needs refugee camps and a state of emergency on deportations. She defends Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma as "the messenger" of frustrated South Africans, asks what happens to the MK Party if Jacob Zuma's health fails, and argues the ANC's problems run deeper than any one leader.
Read The Common Sense on Jacob Zuma's health and the implications: https://www.thecommonsense.co.za/Politics/what-has-happened-jacob-zuma-these-are-implications
Become a member for all the facts and analysis (R99/month): https://www.thecommonsense.co.za/subscribe
The Common Sense: https://www.thecommonsense.co.za
Chapters:
0:00 Coming up
0:27 Inside Koeberg: the first media tour in 40 years
4:51 Meltdown fears, emergency drills and how a reactor works
10:27 Clean steam, nuclear waste and why one plant isn't enough
13:45 Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma: the problem or the messenger?
20:01 Jacob Zuma's health and the future of the MK Party
24:30 Is Zuma to blame, or is the ANC rotten?
25:47 Online asylum applications after the court ruling
29:57 95% rejected, so why aren't they deported?
31:53 Refugee camps, NGOs and a state of emergency

David Ansara, CEO of the Free Market Foundation, sits down with Gabriel Makin days after returning from Washington, where he and Dr Martin van Staden presented the FMF's Don Caldwell Memorandum on Socialism and Racial Engineering at the White Cross Project conference, and attended the vigil of 3,000 named crosses on the National Mall for South Africa's farm-murder victims. He explains why the FMF thinks the US government's five asks of South Africa are valid, and what they would mean for property rights, investment and race law here. They cover the Expropriation Act's nil-compensation clause, the FMF's Khaya Lam project and its 26,000 title deeds, what the 2017 land audit really shows, the 136 race-based laws on the statute books, Starlink and the 30% ownership rule, the media's "white genocide" framing of the trip, the US visa restrictions, and why David believes South Africa is heading for a point of deep conflict with America unless the government changes course.
Read David Ansara's column, The FMF's Memorandum to the Americans: https://www.thecommonsense.co.za/columns/fmf-s-memorandum-americans
The Free Market Foundation: https://freemarketfoundation.com
Become a member for all the facts and analysis (R99/month): https://www.thecommonsense.co.za/subscribe
The Common Sense: https://www.thecommonsense.co.za
Chapters:
0:00 The White Cross Project: 3,000 crosses in Washington
4:47 Property rights, the Expropriation Act and the Don Caldwell Memorandum
8:32 Why the FMF backs America's five asks
12:48 Eminent domain vs nil compensation, Khaya Lam and the land audit
18:12 136 race laws and the Population Registration Act
21:24 Starlink, BEE and the cost of race law
26:16 The public backs the American position. Why doesn't the ANC?
31:25 Farm attacks and the 'white genocide' smear
35:24 Why rural violence is not just crime
37:37 Visa restrictions, the GNU and a point of deep conflict