2007

There’s a strange phenomenon that occurs when a writer whom you’ve admired turns his or her pen to a place or people that you know well. If he or she get it wrong — buying into baseless myths, making ignorant assumptions or shallow analyses — you suddenly find yourself looking back at the rest of […]

I was disconcerted to read in the Sunday Times this weekend that South Africa has led an effort in the UN General Assembly to block a draft resolution condemning states that use rape as a weapon of war and intimidation. This is very odd, particularly in view of the fact that one of the most […]

So why should we care who wins the ANC presidency? We shouldn’t, Ndumiso Ngcobo suggests in his latest post. And he is right to insist that the difference between the candidates is not nearly as great as their supporters and the analysts (sorry, “star gazers” and “palm readers”) make out. But, despite this, the succession […]

I read with interest the decision of the United States government to refuse Professor Adam Habib entry into the US. Purportedly this was based on an Immigration and Nationality Act relating to terrorist activities. Habib is the deputy vice-chancellor of research, innovation and advancement at the University of Johannesburg. Crucially here, he is also a […]

I attended the commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the SS Mendi tragedy on Cape Town’s Grand Parade the other day and I was again reminded of how far we have come as a country in a relatively few short years. As we watched the march pass by, several squadrons of the South African National […]

When a televangelist who blamed the 9/11 attack on the United States on abortionists and feminists endorses the presidential campaign of a man who is openly pro-abortion and gay rights, it’s a big deal. In fact, it’s occasioned the Times of London’s Gerard Baker to describe it as the “the fracturing of the American evangelist […]