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Tony Leon | Dial-a-quote Mbalula uncharacteristically silent on Alexei Navalny's death

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Police officers arrest a man in St Petersburg as over 200 others have been detained for showing support for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died on Friday.
Police officers arrest a man in St Petersburg as over 200 others have been detained for showing support for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died on Friday.
Olga Maltseva/AFP

Stephen Sondheim's famous 1973 song "Send in the Clowns" received a contemporary update, when ANC secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula proudly led an ANC delegation last week to a conference in Moscow sponsored by Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, writes Tony Leon.

If you were doing a mental health check on the state of South African democracy today, schizophrenia could be an accurate diagnosis. 

On the one hand, never in its 30-year bumpy ride toward the pivotal 2024 election has the outcome been so unclear nor as contested. 

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