Why Mamdani's populism is not the answer for SA's future

IN THE article “Beyond fear politics: what SA can learn from Mamdani’s New York victory”, the POST, November 12 - 16, Roshan Jainath writes that the story of New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, “starts not in America, but in Cape Town, and that his childhood in South Africa during the end of apartheid gave him a firsthand look at inequality”.

- SATHI NAIDOO

Really, could this be?

At 5 to 7 years old, the child of a privileged family, and being schooled in expensive private schools and cocooned from the wider South Africa gripped by the ravages of apartheid, having “a firsthand look at inequality”?

The reality is that the hubris surrounding Mamdani will be undone by his populism and TikTok politics that showcase a political naivety and shallow intellectualism (despite his privileged background).