Cryptic Crossword 426: Clue of the week: coming from Gaza 2D Volunteer aides catch attack (4)

– The Mail & Guardian

Bringing Comic Con to Soweto:

If Tapelo Zama has a superpower it must be perseverance. One of the brains behind this weekend’s first ever Afrogeek Festival in Soweto, he has been trying since 2022 with his business partner, Neo Mothoagae, to establish a comic festival in Soweto, but with no luck.

He says some people in the geek community were reluctant to showcase at their festival and that never materialised, so they were unable to bring comic enthusiasts together in the township.

“They did not see the whole value at first. We had to beg and plead with a few of them to be a part of it,” Zama tells the Mail & Guardian. 

“What eventually happened is that Comic Con reached out to us to be a part of their event in 2023 so we sort of put a pin on the Afrogeek fest. We worked with Comic Con and had a pavilion where we invited eight artists to exhibit.” 

Comic Con, short for Comic Convention, is an annual event that celebrates various aspects of pop culture, including comics, books, movies, television shows, video games, cosplay (where children and adults, from casual to professional, dress up as characters, including weapons and accessories) and more. 

It typically features panels, exhibits, screenings and opportunities for fans to meet creators, actors and other industry professionals. Comic Con originated as a comic book convention in the 1970s but has since grown into a massive gathering that attracts fans from all over the world.

For the Soweto business partners this is a labour of love. Zama, 38, works in digital marketing, and Mothoagae, 32, is in insurance. They wanted to bring a similar concept to townships for people who enjoy comics, cosplay and other activities that may be found at a Comic Con event. Having not been successful in 2022, Zama and Mothoagae are giving it another go this year by hosting their Afrogeek Festival at the Uncle Tom’s Hall in Orlando West on Sunday. 

The festival is open to enthusiasts of comic culture as well as those who may just want to pop in and see what this world encompasses. Those in attendance can expect original African comics, indie video games, hand-painted custom art and gaming geek merchandise that will be on sale as well as cosplay. 

“For us, it’s about making this more accessible for the attendees and people who are in the township because I also spent most of my life in the township,” says Zama. “I know for a fact as a person who grew up in the township that there is a market for these types of things.

“These communities do exist and there are a whole lot of people who are interested in the geek culture. So, the audience is there whether it be in Soweto, Tembisa or Alexandra— there are geek communities that are thriving out there,” he says. 

A geek community is a community of people whose interests lie in tech, comics and cosplay, to name a few. They meet to teach each other about the latest developments in their world. Zama says the community has no place to gather as the smaller comic events never make. This is the gap they are trying to bridge by having this Afrogeek festival.

While the inclusivity of South African geeks is the vision that is unfolding for them now, Zama says that they are actively working on creating a pan-African geek culture. 

“Rather than complaining about the lack of this or that, we should ask what can we do about it. That is why we decided to roll it out in communities that we grew up in,” he says ahead of Sunday’s festival. 

Cape Town geeks of all shapes and ages are preparing their costumes for Comic Con Cape Town and the International Animation Festival from 21 April to 1 May at the CTICC.

Philosophy goes beyond superheroes and special powers

Are you a comic book collector? If so, when did you start collecting? 

Tapelo Zama: I wouldn’t call myself a collector per se. I do buy comics on occasion but I do not buy them frequently enough to call myself a collector. I am more of a casual buyer of comic books. However, I have been buying comics for a very long time, back when CNA used to sell comics and that was way back in the mid-1990s.  

What was the first comic book you’ve ever received/read? 

I believe the first comic I ever bought was a Superman comic. I was not loyal to one particular superhero and as a child I always tried to mix it up. So sometimes I would buy Superman the next time I would buy Batman, the next time I would buy X-Men just to see how they are different from each other and to explore all these different worlds out there.  

Who’s your favourite comic character of all time and why? 

My favourite comic book character is quite an obscure one — a character known as Doctor Manhattan in the Watchmen graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons. The graphic novel for a long period of time was a stand alone story that existed outside of the DC universe which was a more “realistic” look at superheroes and was a lot more philosophical, a lot more mature and gritty and Doctor Manhattan existed in this world as the only being with superpowers. 

Do you have a South African favourite comic book/character? 

I am going to say Captain South Africa and the Captain South Africa comic by Bill Masuku. It is a very interesting story, and it is well written and the world is very thoughtfully put together. It also touches on politics and themes that are very topical and relevant that a lot of South Africans can relate to. 

What should one look out for when buying a comic book?

If someone is looking to buy a comic book, especially if they go to a comic book store, my suggestion would be to tell whoever is at the store what you like, but to also keep an open mind — you may be surprised at the variety that is out there. There is more to superheroes than Marvel and DC comics.

– The Mail & Guardian

Ramaphosa puts on his boxing gloves:

Cyril Ramaphosa seems to have a new lease of life. In just over a month the ANC, which he leads, might well fail to secure a majority for the first time since 1994. But Ramaphosa looks up for the fight. 

Either that or he is demob happy, gleefully looking forward to hanging up his political boots as soon as the campaign is done and dusted and retiring to his beloved buffalo farm. 

Or to gaze wistfully over the Atlantic from the vantage point of his Fresnaye terrace, contemplating a political career that has accomplished so much and yet will still feel somewhat unrequited — a job not quite fully done. 

Whether he truly has the hunger that is necessary to continue to head a government, at a complex and challenging time, was very much in question at this point a year ago. 

Despite having emerged largely intact from the Phala Phala scandal that his enemies manufactured to try to bring him down ahead of the ANC’s national elections conference in December 2022, Ramaphosa was listless and some of his staff, sensing that the end was in sight, started to abandon ship or sharpen their CVs ahead of a post-Ramaphosa presidency chapter in their respective professional careers. 

Rumours of Ramaphosa’s impending resignation never quite went away post-Phala Phala. In recent weeks a new version has emerged that would have us believe that he will retire on 30 May,or as soon as possible after voting has been completed. 

I don’t buy it. It wouldn’t be the first time in political history, that a head of state has been galvanised by foreign policy and the high-octane allure of international politics. 

First, as summer moved into autumn last year, the bizarre episode with the Lady R. The dramatic still-unproved allegations by the American ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety irked Ramaphosa and put wind into his sails.

Second, the Brics summit in mid-year. Ramaphosa presided over an historic expansion of the grouping, signalling a substantive move in geo-political relations and a further step in the fundamental shift in power from Global North to Global South. 

Then came 7/10 and Gaza. Support for the Palestinians lies deep in the ANC’s DNA and here was a chance to not only take action on the world stage but to rekindle the ANC’s internationalist normative core. 

South Africa’s application to the International Court of Justice brought Ramaphosa a sense of moral clarity that is so often absent from the muddy and murky terrain of domestic politics. 

As I say, this has happened before. Tony Blair is a good example. He came to power in the UK in 1997 with an inward focus on domestic policy and reform of the Labour Party. By his own admission, Blair had little interest in or knowledge of foreign affairs. 

But, within a year or two, the conflict in Kosovo provided him with not only a steep learning curve but an opportunity to take the sort of cut-and-dried action that is usually impossible when, say, seeking to navigate a new path through education or housing policy. 

Compared with walking through domestic policy treacle, international affairs can be thrilling and liberating. You get to chair high-level security council meetings, with generals and screens showing real-time military action that you have ordered. You get to bomb things and make big decisions. 

John Kampfner’s excellent book Blair’s Wars recounts this transformation in his political interests and character. 

Ramaphosa has not yet bombed anywhere. But he does enjoy rubbing shoulders with other world leaders, whether Brics or the G20, which South Africa will host next year. 

This might be a mirage. The more important question is whether it will make any difference to the ANC’s fortunes in next month’s election. As ever, the ANC is leaving it late — their campaign has yet to gather momentum or zest — but that is normal. It only tends to get moving in the last three weeks before a poll. 

Hence, rumours of the ANC’s demise — like its leader’s — might be greatly exaggerated. A clutch of opinion polls have got a lot of people very excited by the idea that the ANC might fall closer to 40% or even go below it. 

I don’t buy them either.

Methodological impurity is one problem; a long-standing tendency of such polls to serially under-estimate ANC support is another. Some contain deliberate bias in their set-up, presumably to trigger certain reactions in the political game. 

The investor world is, consequently, all a-flutter. They are not used to such uncertainty in the country’s electoral landscape. They, like corporate South Africa, are trying desperately to figure out what is the best possible outcome — or the least bad one. 

Many yearn for a “grand coalition” between the ANC and the Democratic Alliance (DA), which would offer the greatest stability, with the “adults in the room” in charge of government, and the miscreants and militants pushed away from power.  

Which is why donors on both sides, and especially the DA’s, are insisting that this option be kept on the table. The fear is that if the ANC vote collapses below 45% then it might be pushed into the dark, low-road scenario of an alliance with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) — a fear that is fertilised by recent events in city halls such as Ekurhuleni, where the ANC and EFF have ganged up to bring in an ANC mayor, much to the disgruntlement of the DA. 

The point is that to get this high-road scenario of a grand ANC-DA coalition you have to flirt with an ANC-EFF deal,  a starkly different scenario. 

Think of it like this: if the ANC goes below 45%, it will be like a car entering a roundabout. The first exit is marked “EFF”, the second “DA”. Which will it take? 

Answering this question will be traumatic for the ANC, which will be in deep shock. Deputy President Paul Mashatile and his chums will be pushing Ramaphosa out of the door, while Ramaphosa’s inner circle will, not for the first time, be trying to pull him back in, pleading with him for “one more country duty”. 

They, and a majority of the ANC’s top seven, will want Ramaphosa, not the inexperienced and untested Mashatile, to lead the ANC’s negotiations. 

Sorting this out, in a fevered atmosphere, and an intense struggle for power in which the fragmented “radical economic transformation” faction will be quickly re-grouping, sensing a chance to reclaim a lost foothold, will take a few weeks. The country will be on a knife edge; the uncertainty will require calm heads — on all sides. 

But it is unlikely to come to this. My base case remains unmoved — the ANC will get between 45% and 49%. Far more comfortable coalition options will be available and Ramaphosa will probably remain in office. Not a great deal will change in government. 

The unwelcome arrival of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party on the scene has complicated matters, admittedly. But again, not to the extent that some polls and some commentators are suggesting. 

Jacob Zuma, as incorrigible and indefatigably malign and menacing a presence as ever, has loyal supporters but many of those attending his Trumpian rallies are probably not registered to vote. 

However, if the MK party was to get 15% in KwaZulu-Natal, it would not only further complicate an already complicated province, with votes taken from ANC, the Inkatha Freedom Party and the EFF, and with no majority, but could have a bearing on the national outcome because it would translate into 2% to 3%, the difference, say, between the ANC winning 48% and 45%. 

Zuma is a spanner in the works. Not a big spanner, but a spanner nonetheless. The ANC will have to keep an eye on him and adjust its campaign accordingly. 

Regardless of his plans, the ANC will need Ramaphosa to put his back into the final weeks of the campaign if he is to convince voters that he remains the measured hand on the tiller that South Africa needs if it is to navigate choppy socio-economic seas — or, put another way, the least bad option available, as many people who have gone through the “roundabout” exercise have also concluded. 

Richard Calland is a visiting adjunct professor at the Wits School of Governance, an emeritus associate professor at the University of Cape Town and a founding partner of the Paternoster Group.

– The Mail & Guardian

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