The wise words of former chief justice Pius Langa at a Press Freedom Day function last Monday highlighted the importance of freedom of expression. There are many in our society who do not understand this freedom and its responsibility. There is a need to be patient and tirelessly remind them of the dark days when […]
2009
Posted inNews/Politics
Let’s jerk off to climate change
If you haven’t blogged, made a poster, built a sand castle or ran naked through the streets screaming “the climate changers are coming”, then you’re quite a tough cookie aren’t you? If you haven’t switched off the lights and sat in the dark or considered organic eggs or experimented with recycled bath water in your […]
Posted inGeneral
From whence the Zulus came and where the Bushmen went
It is a constant refrain heard in South Africa that the Zulus and the “black” Africans come from the north. This “fact” is so skewed in the way in which it is used and is poorly understood by most so I wish to clarify a few points about the arrival of the Bantu-speaking Africans in […]
Posted inBusiness
Housing: Are good ideas wilfully ignored?
We’ve been promised housing for South Africans for a good 15 years now, but progress has been rather pathetic. The backlog remains at more than 2 million houses and government seems highly unlikely to make serious inroads into the issue soon. This became painfully evident last month when it came to light that government flagship housing […]
Posted inGeneral
Soweto massacre: Just what the doctor ordered
By Lesedi Dibakwane South Africans are passionate about their sport. Naturally our football over the past few weeks has evoked an outpouring of emotions and stirred up great debate. There has been chatter about our lack of quality on the field and a general displeasure with any suggestion that we lack the relevant experience off […]
Posted inGeneral
So, how was the reunion, Michael?
Let’s give credit where it’s due. Liverpool dug deep on Sunday and got a win over their friends from down the road. And while they were at it, their fans also gave Michael Owen the sort of reception befitting a bomb terrorist … But, these things happen. Owen must have expected it, and from the […]
Posted inGeneral
Strangers — just enemies you haven’t met
They say God created alcohol to prevent the Irish from taking over the world, which is true in the sense that they never bothered to colonise anything. Yet, if you look at this country of over 6 million souls, it is one of the most successful exporters of culture in the world. Most cities in the […]
Posted inGeneral
The new apartheid of tolerance
I have a, perhaps unnatural or irrational, aversion to the idea of tolerance. I think it might be semantic or sociolinguistic in its origin, but I remember expressing during my stay in the US last year that I hate the word tolerance. The admission came during the home-stay period of our visit to the States […]
Posted inNews/Politics
We remain obsessed with racism
I have to admit that I did not read the report on which the Cape Times based its “Cape Town is a racist city — study” banner headline last Thursday (October 22 2009). I did try to get a copy of the report, commissioned by the Employment Equity Programme and conducted by Sabie Surtee and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zille zeitgeist?
“Premier appoints all male cabinet”, “All male cabinet is a betrayal of women” ranted the headlines in May. I am writing, of course, of the headlines in Britain’s newspapers when Margaret Hilda Thatcher, a grocer’s daughter, appointed an all-male cabinet thirty-years-ago. When Helen Zille was to do exactly the same in May of this year, […]
Posted inGeneral
Jansen’s decision is patently wrong
The Free State ANC has confirmed that the party will picket the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Monday and Tuesday with a protest march planned for next Friday, to the University of the Free State, following an announcement by its Rector Jonathan Jansen that they had pardoned the Reitz Four and invited them to finish their […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics
Hey, Zuma, you can’t buy your way out of this one, old chap
Almost from the moment the rag-tag gaggle of erstwhile freedom fighters took over the reins of power — and, boy, did they love that power, like a kid who had just got his driver’s licence and was put behind the wheel of a Ferrari — they realised that, even under someone of the statesmanship and […]