It’s raining in Johannesburg. In Africa, we believe rain is a blessing, that it cleanses, brings new life. This week African National Congress delegates at Polokwane make the most important political decision the movement has taken since 1956 when it voted to allow white members, and pan-Africanists under Robert Sobukwe broke away. In the same […]
2007
Posted inNews/Politics
No, dear, that’s not mob rule — it’s called democracy
We say we want democracy — but we don’t seem to like it much when we see it. How else to interpret the breast-beating from commentators and some delegates here at Polokwane after the opening day of the ANC conference? Most of us no doubt know by now that day one of Polokwane was a […]
Posted inGeneral
Parliamentary pornography
Sjoe, but I’m dizzy! After spending some time tracking down the latest set of amendments to our sexual offences laws — the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act — I made a serious mistake: I started to read it. It had taken me a while to find the document because it has […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A day of terror
Sunday will go down as the day on which President Thabo Mbeki lost the leadership of the ANC, but it’s party chairperson Terror Lekota who goes home with the biggest headache. What a day! It’s never been this good (for journalists) and so bad (for the ANC). The day ended as it began: with a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
A blogger in Polokwane … an experiment gone wrong
I believe in affirmative action. This noble policy has ensured that this blogger has had plenty of experience with being thrown into the deep end and expected to sink swim. It’s old news by now that it seems that I have made history by being the first blogger to gain accreditation for the Mecca of […]
Posted inLifestyle
Britney Spears in talks to play the Virgin Mary
Before I begin, don’t let me catch anyone sniggering. Just because a person is an alcoholic does not mean she can’t play a sober part. Just because a person is slow doesn’t mean that she can’t play Einstein. Just because a person loses her clothing (and occasionally her hair) if anybody coughs does not mean […]
Posted inLifestyle
The chilli chocolate circus
Madame Zingara’s Theatre of Dreams, outside Montecasino in Johannesburg, is a truly fantabulistic, out-of-this-world experience. It’s so fresh, so original and so much fun. From the second you walk into the giant circus-like tent, you feel yourself transported to another world. A world where bohemian rhapsody, funny hats and the abstractly bizarre all meet in […]
Posted inNews/Politics
President Mbeki: Sad, out-of-touch denialist
The (probably apocryphal) story is told that when Field Marshal Tito, president of the former Yugoslavia, was on his death bed, he heard the noise of thousands of voices outside his window and asked what was going on. “The people have come to say goodbye,” his aid is said to have replied. To which Tito […]
Posted inGeneral
Merre Christmas
Modderdam Road runs from the N2 highway into the centre of beautiful downtown Bellville, part of greater Cape Town. I’ve been driving the four or so kilometers of the road to the University of the Western Cape every day for 10 years. Modderdam is a microcosm of the world we live in: vistas of development […]
Posted inLifestyle
Inquest: Diana’s letters to Dodi and a few I’ve received from Mr Lombard
I’ve been reading a few articles about Princess Diana’s inquest and in particular the letters that she wrote to Dodi Fayed. They are very touching and go right to the heart of the tragedy: a sensitive soul who becomes princess, only to be scorned by a rather cruel and insensitive prince. In Dodi she finds […]
Posted inLifestyle
The police, Mr Fivaz and my mother’s crime wave
I am afraid the mayor of Cape Town is not alone in feeling the South African Police Service is a bit … shall we say, fantastically incapable? Unbelievably incompetent? Perhaps you feel I go too far. I do feel I have been pushed over the edge. It wasn’t the housebreaking and theft of virtually all […]
Posted inLifestyle
(One of) my best friends’ (gay) wedding
I am excited. Having been part of the crowd that brought you same-sex marriage, I get to attend my very first civil union ceremony in early January. But not only that, I also get to organise a bachelor’s party. To be frank, I haven’t a clue what to do. Does one follow “tradition” — drunken […]