Six The Thick of It characters and their real-life South African political counterparts
As the political circus goes on and on, it’s high time this country had its own answer to Armando Iannucci’s genius satire, which lampooned the British political class a decade ago.
Before the series is inevitably picked up by SABC (yeah, right!) let’s see where the character inspiration might come from. For those of you wondering why there’s no mention of Mmusi Maimane – it’s political satire, not a puppet show. Okay?
If you’re, for some reason, not familiar with The Thick of It, here’s a quick taste.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUky4_A7Zw4
President Jacob Zuma – Hugh Abbot MP/Nicola Murray MP
Cock-ups, conflicts of interest, media gaffes… they’re all present and incorrect when standing the principle characters from fact and fiction side by side. An unfortunate case of truth being more outrageous than make believe, perhaps, as the bumbling British cartoons never actually made it to the highest office in the land.
Baleka Mbete – Malcolm Tucker
Sharp-tongued, at the heart of the government machine and apparently indestructible. These two are old hands at spin, subterfuge and the survivalist dark arts of politics. But that does make you think… can you imagine just how fun it would have been if Tucker had been made speaker of the House of Commons?
Julius Malema – Oliver Reeder
Young, outrageously populist and capable of being extremely offensive and insensitive. Both have the breathless arrogance to believe they can usurp the established order, although Reeder retained the thoroughly British, inside-the-tent-pissing-out approach. Malema, meanwhile, is very much looking in from the outside since his split from the ANC. Hopefully his umbrella will stand up to it.
Diane Kohler Barnard – Terri Coverley
A tale of failing to be PC on a PC. The Director of Communications on the hit show had her computer used to send an email that called a small child a “c**t”. This was only slightly less offensive than the real life politician sharing praise for apartheid president PW Botha on her Facebook page.
Pieter Mulder – Peter Mannion MP
The FF+ ‘groote kaas’ even shares initials with his fictitious counterpart. Old fashioned, out of touch and longing for days of yore – these two would get along famously in the back corner of a stuffy, beer-stained carpeted pub. Before the smoking ban in the UK, of course.
Fikile Mbalula – Dan Miller MP
Still at the youthful end of the political spectrum, both of these characters wield an inexplicable amount of power, leading the audience to question how they wormed their way into positions of such frightening influence. Given the Minister for Razzmatazz’s penchant for spouting nonsense, you’d be forgiven for wishing he used some of Miller’s quiet sneakiness instead, whatever the consequences.
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