At the risk’ve sounding like Henry Higgins trying to get Eliza Doolittle to speak proper English, I could of sworn English was a different language when I was a kid. I lay the blame firmly at the door have our schoolteachers, who don’t seem to be able to see the would for the trees any […]
2008
Posted inNews/Politics
Free State Four: Blame the government
Submitted by Peter Griffiths Over the past week, many people have reacted with outrage to a video made by four University of the Free State students. For the most part I believe an opportunity for debate has been missed by media capitalising on sensationalist reportage, commentators quickly making sure they couldn’t possibly be caught on […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Don’t bitch about Bush — you got Zuma
Submitted by Henk Campher I am extremely proud of being African and South African. What we have managed to do over the past 15-odd years has been unbelievable. From the most despicable apartheid regime to a stable democracy and sound economic growth; from the bottom of the world pecking order to the leading global voice […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The chicken’s bare ass …
Submitted by Unathi Kondile Early last week, one of my United States editors asked if I had heard of the race incident at the University of the Free State. I said I hadn’t, and didn’t make much of it when he elaborated. I told him it was probably one of those African fables that are […]
Posted inNews/Politics
You can take Afrikaners out of apartheid, but can you take apartheid out of Afrikaners?
I recently wrote an essay where I explored the question in the heading, one that is equally applicable to English-speaking white people in South Africa. The racist incident at the University of the Free State makes this question relevant yet again, as do the Skielik killings, following on a range of other examples of white-on-black […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
The funniest thing I’ve read in weeks
Is all of South Africa reading Hayibo (www.hayibo.com)? We all should be. It is by far the most hilarious piece of writing I’ve come across in as long as I can remember, and it comes out every week! What a pleasure. With the tag line “Breaking news. Into lots of little pieces”, Hayibo takes on […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle
Salad-bar diversity
A few months ago I wrote a piece titled “The Oros Man” in which I detailed the pressures and inhumanities to which fat people are subjected in order to fit in the corporate workplace. In that particular piece I used the illustrious year-end office function as a tool to illustrate my point of view on […]
Posted inLifestyle
A weekend in the city
There were so many reasons to get out of the house last weekend and see the city. Firstly, it was my birthday. It was (in my opinion) a significant birthday, and my first as a Jozi resident. Secondly, I have yet another unwelcome guest at my house, and less time spent at home means less […]
Posted inNews/Politics
YouTube rape videos, castrating taxi drivers and a woman named Gugu
A 25-year-old mother of two from south London whose drink had been spiked was raped by three boys who filmed the incident on a cellphone and then uploaded it on to YouTube. The website, immediately after being informed of this, pulled it off but not before about 600 people had already seen it. Unfortunately in […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Coconuts, racism and SABC politics
Since the debate about the (re)launch of the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ) refuses to die and since it will be given new life on Wednesday at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), I thought I would add my own little bit of noise into the cacophony that already exists. No doubt the SAHRC […]
Posted inMedia
Ad shenanigans
On December 20, I sent the final page of my 200th edition of Grocott’s Mail to press in the basement of the building. The press began clunking. It was with a heavy heart that I shut down my computer for the last time and became the former youngest editor of the country’s oldest newspaper. Some […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Surviving an economic downturn: Philanthropy and the non-profit sector
Working in the philanthropy field gives me some idea of how confident people are about South Africa. Until 1976, huge philanthropic investments were made in the country by the then white elites — they established charitable foundations to ensure that their legacies endured into the future, and we still reap the benefits of some of […]