Disclaimer: This is not a post per se, only a follow-up to my last piece, “Could Mbeki be too smart to govern?”. If you found that one mind-numbingly boring, sit this one out. I’ll post something tomorrow. The first time I heard about the existence of the worldwide web, my mind couldn’t even begin to…
I get many emails from satisfied readers and from readers who think I’m a nitwit. One reader of the Silwane Files sent me this email: Hi Ndumiso, I thoroughly enjoyed your blogs from when you were blogging on Amagama. I have noticed that since you started blogging on Thought Leader, you have been on a…
Unless you’ve been held hostage by infidel-busters in Baghdad and featured in MTV videos next to angry guys wearing balaclavas for the past three months, you’ve heard about the book The Secret. Gazillions of people swear by it and have used it to cure themselves of all manner of ailments, from cancer to arsehole-ishness apparently….
Disclaimer: The following piece is not recommended for sensitive readers. It contains strong language, politically incorrect utterances and general profanity. Reader discretion is advised. I have confessed before that I am a walking bundle of personality disorders. One that I failed to mention is that I am fighting a losing battle against anger management. The…
In January 1984, a 12-year-old was shipped off to Catholic boarding school by his parents to begin his secondary education in Vryheid, northern KwaZulu-Natal. That young man was yours truly. Innocent and idealistic, I joined 200-odd other young people aged between 10 and about 20 years old at Inkamana High School. One of my mentors…
Among my many personality disorders (incredible arrogance, extreme sarcasm, narcissistic tendencies, shameless self-aggrandisement, compulsive argumentativeness, condescending nature and so forth), the one that worries me the most is what I call my brain-in-mouth disease (BIMD). It’s a pretty serious condition that is caused by the malfunctioning filters between my brain and mouth. That is a…
Human beings are a funny lot. Because I’ve written a few satirical opinion pieces that were published (plus I’m a Thought Leader, tee hee hee) I have had the “social commentator” tag attached to me a few times. That means that, all of a sudden, people want me to “comment” on things. This past Saturday…
This is an open letter to Riaan Wolmarans, editor of the M&G Online. Dear Riaan, A street war has been raging in the public domain for a while now. The main protagonists have been the cream of intelligentsia in our land. On one side you have All the President’s Men, led by none other the…
The American writer, satirist and humorist PJ O’Rourke wrote a book entitled Parliament of Whores (1991) — apparently a caricature of the government of the United States. I must confess that I have never read the book although I fully intend to in the near future. Since about two weeks ago, the phrase “parliament of…
Since I started blogging on http://silwanekanjila.amagama.com I have attached my email address (silwanekanjila@gmail.com) at the bottom of my blogs almost from day one. It proved to be a master stroke because of all the excellent feedback I’ve received from some of my readers. Granted, some of the feedback is of the “your blogs are dog…
