Posted inMediaNews/Politics

Trading old chestnuts for new – young, angry and black

“It would make an am-a-zing scarecrow, don’t you think?” asks a friend. Save the dull narrative of South Africa’s miracle, another chestnut has crept into South Africa’s discourse. This time around, there’s no Shosholoza humming or rainbows. “Young, angry and black” and its variants has become a phrase dished out with little thought. It passes […]

Posted inNews/Politics

Cabinet reshuffle: SA media’s response is laughable

A friend of mine, Xolani Dlamini (@xolani_bouga), said yesterday on Twitter: “SA media will criticise the second coming if Zuma made the announcement.” That’s how baffling the media’s response to Zuma’s firing of General Bheki Cele, the appointment of his replacement Mangwashi Victoria Phiyega, and the cabinet reshuffle necessitated by the passing of Minister Roy […]

Posted inNews/Politics

Enemies, enemies, everywhere

“No rubbernecking,” I was told by an official when I crossed into Zimbabwe from Botswana in the late 1990s. I immediately understood that as a journalist I am allowed entry as long as I don’t “snoop around”. Zanu-PF’s resistance to being held accountable, also by “outsiders”, had already by that early stage infiltrated the lower […]