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DM168, People of the Year

Roman Cabanac’s racist remarks and Thabi Leoka’s fake PhD

Roman Cabanac’s racist remarks and Thabi Leoka’s fake PhD
Cape Town - 4 September 2019 -Dr Thabi Leoka, Economist and commissioner at the PIC Commission of Inquiryat a panel discussion arranged by Brand South Africa on the theme "Enhancing the Ease of doing business in South Africa." The event was a precursor to the World Economic Forum on Africa which opened later in the day. (Photo: Jeffrey Abrahams / Gallo Images)
Marianne Thamm
By Marianne Thamm
26 Dec 2024
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Our more-than-worthy runners-up in this hotly contested category are a podcaster known for his racist remarks on social media, who John Steenhuisen appointed as chief of staff, and a former adviser to Cyril Ramaphosa who lied about her qualification.

First runner-up
Roman Cabanac


You know what they say about the internet? Unlike life, it is forever.

So when the fresh aroma of scandal began to surround the newly appointed chief of staff to the Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, he quickly sought to erase his filthy electronic footprint.

This consisted of divisive race-baiting and general bruiser behaviour over on the mean streets of social media, X in particular, where verbal cage fights are de rigueur. 

Like a Trumpian wind-up toy, Cabanac, a podcaster, thought he could get away with describing President Cyril Ramaphosa as a “p*es” (that thingamajig the US president-elect likes to grab) and ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula as “handicapped”.

Inventing new words, like they do in Trumpland (Slopanopalous, Sleepy Joe), Cabanac tried his hand with “spokestard”. As a result he found his new plum R1.4-million annual salary a mere pipe dream and his dream in high politics shattered. Back to podcasting…

Our Daily Maverick readers have not hidden their electronic footprints as they voted for him and so Cabanac is a worthy runner-up in this category.

Second runner-up
Thabi Leoka


Thabi Leoka. (Photo: Jeffrey Abrahams / Gallo Images)



The idea of faking it till you make it might work in the movies, but in the real world the stock exchange comes crashing down around you.

 In this instance, it was make it and then fake it and then lose it.

Thabi Leoka seemed to have it all. A prominent economist and former adviser to President Cyril Ramaphosa, she served as a role model for younger women seeking to succeed in this notoriously cut-throat world. 

Turns out that the PhD she claimed to have obtained in international economics at the London School of Economics turned out to be a porky.

But with a real master’s degree from the same prestigious institution, Leoka actually had the world at her feet.

In November, the JSE censured her with a R500,000 fine and immediate disqualification from holding directorship of a publicly listed company for five years. DM

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