Machiavelli on power – as relevant in SA today as Florence 400 years ago

By Alec Hogg
The gifted French writer Victor Hugo taught us there is nothing new under the sun. And as South Africa braces for another day of anti-Zuma protests, 400 years into the past provides a useful perspective.
A pal reminded me of the classical work on the subject by Niccolo Machiavelli. In his book The Prince, the long-dead Florentine student of power wrote that for its accumulation “it is essential to ignore the moral laws of man and of God. Promises must be made only with the intention to deceive and mislead others to sacrifice their own interests; friends or allies must be betrayed as a matter of course as soon as they have served their purpose.”
Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s president. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
Machiavelli continued: “These atrocities must be kept hidden from the common people except only where they are of use to strike terror to the hearts of opponents. There must be kept up a spurious aspect of benevolence and benefit for the greater number of the people and even an aspect of humility to gain as much help as possible.”
Remind you of anyone?
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