By Samantha Fleming Last week’s political fiascos (gosh, the choice of links is dazzling — Malema, Terre’Blanche, Visagie … or Malema?) brought a new kind of revolution to the social media landscape in South Africa. The frenzy of activity in a week of political theatrics brought new local subscribers to twitter and ramped up comments […]
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Posted inBusiness
‘Nikey’ and the price war
Prices lie. Well, at the best they tell a half truth, masking a lot of what the full cost of a particular product is. A price tag will tell you, for example, that the bottle of Coke you’re holding costs one thing, while in actual fact the real cost is usually far more. I am […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Leadership based not on hope but fear
It is dispiriting that the ANC’s sudden restraint has more to do with managing international perceptions ahead of the Soccer World Cup than it has do with what happens in SA in the long term. It is also dispiriting that the death of a particularly vile racist has given a shot in the arm to a white supremacist movement that previously was on life support.
Posted inNews/Politics
AWB’s Visagie and SA’s urgent need for communication among all parties
So Andre Visagie, secretary-general of the AWB, really lost his cool recently on e.tv to the delight of the international media, especially the BBC. Addressing Visagie in the talk show, campaigner for human rights Lebohang Pheko was passionately asking a string of perfectly legitimate questions about the poverty and oppression of (largely black) farm workers. […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Floyd’s right about partisan journalism
My intuitive connection to friends, rivals, enemies and colleagues in the media tells me that many of the powerful ones will curse me after they have read this piece. After all, this is not intended to protect them against the onslaught by ANC Youth League’s Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu. As I understand after many […]
Posted inGeneral
ANC must think South Africa, not members only
The African National Congress, as the current ruling party that provides the people who make up the government and the president of the country, are charged with running the country for all South Africans regardless of their political beliefs. Accordingly in responding to issues such as the murder of former AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche, polarisation […]
Posted inNews/Politics
‘Black boers’ and other revolutionary songs
A hat tip to Mphutlane wa Bofelo for pointing out the subtext to the ANC’s claim to the “shoot the boer!” song: For is it not the case, as wa Bofelo points out, that the attempt to establish a heritage status for the song locates the struggle in the past? And what of the new […]
Posted inNews/Politics
This is the last time I write about Julius
If I ever feel tempted to write about Julius Malema — aka Droolius, the Jelly Tsotsi, JuJu, Kiddie Amin etc — please remind me of this post. Remind me that I took a vow never to write about him again, because writing about him would make me complicit in fueling his continued rise to a […]
Posted inGeneral
Six Nations vs Tri-Nations: And the money goes to …
International rugby is really squaring up to a North vs. South battle between the hemispheres, as to who gets to harvest the financial returns or not. The next five years will be particularly challenging for the Sanzar countries in spite of them occupying the top three slots of the International Rugby Board rankings, with little […]
Posted inGeneral
ANC reversing ‘shoot the boer’ will test the Constitution
The African National Congress has confirmed that it will be taking legal steps to reverse the decision of the South Gauteng High Court on Thursday which granted an interdict against ANCYL leader Julius Malema singing dubula ibhunu [shoot the boer]. ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu issued a statement on Friday in terms whereof the ruling party […]
Posted inLifestyle
Cape yuppies aren’t giving up the mountain for mine dumps
By Guy Lundy South Africans have a rather outdated tendency to think that all of its cities should be the same. As a result we judge Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and anywhere else in the country by the same criteria, and believe that all our cities should focus on the same industries, compete for the […]
Posted inGeneral
The importance of confidence and spreading it
The definition of confidence is as follows (with thanks to Wikipedia): Generally described as a state of being certain either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. How is confidence mitigated? If we take the definition above and go the other way, […]