Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 23-07-2019
A Wits professor has told Radio Islam that while US president Donald Trump and former South African president Jacob Zuma are half a world apart, they are similarly paranoid and dangerous.
In an article in the The Conversation, Professor Roger Southall writes both Trump and Zuma will disown any intent to foment violence, verbal or physical, against those they pillory.
However, he says they know that their words constitute a dangerous incitement and while they may be half a world apart in ideology, Trump and Zuma inhabit a similar world of conspiracy, lies, threats and paranoia.
Trump has spewed racist hate-speech against four Democratic Party Congress women of colour, telling them to “go back home” to their “broken” and “crime infested” countries of origin while Zuma, appearing before the Zondo Commission probing allegations of grand corruption during his tenure, has played the victim of a 30-year conspiracy.
Southall says the intent by Trump and Zuma to protect themselves is a tried and tested method.
“It’s not exclusive to them, by any means. Many of the populist leaders who are either right or left will use the threat of the foreign other as something un-citizen- like opposed to the interests of the people. They want to promote and enemy so as to have something to fight against.”
Southall says both Trump and Zuma inhabit a world devoid of morality, which subordinates any sense of right and wrong to their political survival.
Listen to the interview with Professor Roger Southall
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