{"id":8688,"date":"2026-01-07T06:22:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/8688\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T06:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:22:22","slug":"mayor-mamdani-south-africa-is-the-model-for-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/8688\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Mamdani: South Africa is the model for New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a performance worthy of an Oscar or maybe a Tony. Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019<\/a>s address at his swearing in ceremony on New Year\u2019s Day electrified the freezing crowd every bit as much as it shocked the Democratic establishment, and perhaps even the 50 percent of New Yorkers who didn\u2019t vote for him.<\/p>\n

The newly-minted Mayor had the stage, but graciously acknowledged that the real star was socialism. \u201cI was elected as a Democratic Socialist and I will govern as a Democratic Socialist.\u201d He hailed an \u201cera of big government,\u201d vowed to govern \u201cexpansively and audaciously\u201d and said he would \u201cset an example for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The grimace-cum-smile on Chuck Schumer\u2019s face \u2013 sitting hostage-like behind the mayor, who he has yet to endorse or even say if he voted for \u2013 told its own story about exactly how thrilled the mainstream Democratic party is to go into the midterms later this year, and more importantly the 2028 presidential campaign, with Mayor Mamdani as the party\u2019s principal standard bearer. At some point grinning and bearing it won\u2019t be an option, the radical Mamdani platform will have to be embraced or disavowed. It won\u2019t be pretty.<\/p>\n

So what can New Yorkers look forward to under their energetic and muscular new form of socialism? Mayor Mamdani gave them clues, advising them to \u201clook to Madiba and the South African Freedom Charter.\u201d The charter that Madiba \u2013 Nelson Mandela \u2013 helped forge with the ANC was the blueprint for post-apartheid South Africa. It opens with the words \u201cour people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality.\u201d Suggesting that apartheid is alive and well in New York will have brought another big gulp from Schumer and the Democratic establishment. The Democrat Socialists of America have so far failed to persuade the country that apartheid exists in Israel, so it\u2019s ambitious to think they can make the case for its existence in New York. This is testing the very limits of grievance politics. And the current almost failed state that is South Africa, with white farmers fleeing to America as refugees, bodes particularly ill as a template for New York.<\/p>\n

As in South Africa, the enemy in Mamdani\u2019s New York is often white people. He has already vowed to target \u201cwhiter neighborhoods\u201d for higher taxes. In his inaugural speech he zoned in on another set of unprosecuted criminals: billionaires. They think they \u201ccan buy our democracy\u201d and for too long New York has belonged to \u201cthe wealthy and well-connected.\u201d Billionaires seemingly the scourge of the city and also neatly the solution to its problems \u2013 just increase their taxes.<\/p>\n

However, the Robin Hood mask slipped when Mamdani spoke about plans to fix the \u201clong-broken property tax system,\u201d which will not see billionaires and oligarchs pay more, but middle-class property owners. According to a report from the liberal think tank the Fiscal Policy Institute, even more tax rises will have to be imposed to fund his universal childcare program \u2013 tax hikes on corporations and millionaires alone won\u2019t cover the bill for the program. Governor Kathy Hochul, another hostage on the stage behind Mamdani, will have to sign-off on his tax plans and has, so far at least, signaled reluctance to.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no coincidence that signs for \u201cNo-Flo\u201d \u2013 New York\u2019s hottest new neighborhood \u2013 are cropping up across the city\u2019s underground system. It is, of course, an upscale housing development in North Florida. But the well timed, eye-catching signs and lure of low taxes and sun will turn the heads of ordinary New Yorkers. It\u2019s not just the mobile top one percent of New York taxpayers, those who pay about 40 percent of the city\u2019s personal income tax revenue, who might pack up and leave the city.<\/p>\n

Mamdani promised at the start of his speech that he had grand ambitions for New York and perhaps nowhere was that clearer than when he claimed that under his leadership society in the city would be remade to \u201dreplace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.\u201d His campaign demonstrated to him that \u201cthe people of New York yearn for solidarity.\u201d For most observers, the key take-away from his win was that he had accurately put his finger on the cost of living crisis. New Yorkers might be surprised to learn that they, in fact, voted to be less entrepreneurial, resourceful and self-starting.<\/p>\n

The new mayor tailored much of his speech towards New York\u2019s now sizable Muslim population by taking his oath of office on a Koran, speaking in Urdu, saying he stood alongside \u201chalal cart vendors whose knees ache from working all day\u201d and referencing \u201cPalestinian New Yorkers in Bay Ridge.\u201d Muslims are now a major voting block that his campaign courted and who repaid him with votes. The number of Muslims in New York has risen to nearly one million, representing nine percent of the population. They cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n

That the new mayor has box office star power is beyond doubt. Thousands lined up, at least seven blocks deep, in frigid weather, moving at a snail\u2019s pace, just to gain entry to the post-inauguration block party along Broadway. Mamdani held them in the palm of his hand: they laughed at his jokes, booed Eric Adams \u2013 who incredibly appeared to be having the best time of all on the dais \u2013 and \u201cchanted tax the rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a perfectly straight face Mamdani told the crowd, \u201clove will be our guide as we pursue our agenda.\u201d And \u201cwe will return the vast resources of this city to the workers who call it home.\u201d They loved it, tears were shed.<\/p>\n

Mayor Mamdani is, if nothing else, the leading man in New York\u2019s latest chapter. An arts student, who has graduated from bit parts in his director mother\u2019s films and from a rap career as Young Cardamom. Starring on Broadway, albeit the street rather than a stage in the theatre district, was perhaps the culmination of a life\u2019s dream. Especially with supporting performances from established stars AOC and Bernie Sanders. New Yorkers like the rest of America are now desperate to find out how this show ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a performance worthy of an Oscar or maybe a Tony. Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s address at his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[6053,6054,6055,6056,6057,131],"class_list":{"0":"post-8688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-democrats","9":"tag-mamdani","10":"tag-mayor","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-schumer","13":"tag-south-africa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}