Against the tide by Steven Friedman

Anyone who wants to destroy democracy here now knows how to do it. Identify the politicians and officials who stand in your way and accuse them of wrong-doing. You don't have to manufacture evidence because political parties, media and people on platforms like these will cheer you even if you don't produce any. By the time they realise that you have used them to take their rights away, it will be too late

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Steven Friedman is a public commentator and an academic, currently employed as a Research Professor at the University of Johannesburg. He has been writing on South African politics for the entire democratic period both as a scholar and public commentator. He has published books on South Africa’s transition to democracy, the role of the trade union movement, and current South African politics. He has also written columns and articles for several South African newspapers. His writing seeks to use academic research to shed light on current politics but to ensure that this is conveyed in a way easily understood by people who have no academic training.