Rabbie Serumula, author, award-winning poet, journalist.
In healthy countries, rumours die quickly. They collide with trusted institutions and fall apart.
In South Africa, rumours often survive because they find shelter in uncertainty.
This week, a daughter was expelled by her father, a police general was reportedly arrested and then apparently was not, and another senior police officer warned that a war was underway. Three reminders that South Africans are increasingly struggling to determine not only what is true, but whom to believe.
The expulsion of Duduzile Zuma from the MK Party is, on the surface, a family matter played out in public. Yet beneath the drama lies a deeper question about authority. Political movements built around powerful personalities often project an image of unquestionable loyalty. But when discipline reaches one's own household, it suggests something else: a leadership trying to demonstrate that it remains in control.
