2026 Begins Without Guardrails: Venezuela, Trump and a World Coming Apart

2026 has begun with a bang — and not the good kind. In this episode of This Is Politics, Justice Malala and Mondli Makhanya interrogate the dramatic seizure of Venezuela’s president and what it reveals about a rapidly changing global order. Is this law enforcement, abduction, or something far more dangerous? And what happens when the world’s most powerful country decides that rules no longer apply? The conversation moves from Venezuela to Donald Trump’s return to hard imperial power, the erosion of international law, and the uncomfortable reality that South Africa’s leaders seem more animated by global outrage than by the deep crises at home — unemployment, violence, poverty and stagnation. This is a wide-ranging, serious discussion about power, hypocrisy, global instability and the choices facing South Africa in a volatile year.