What is the colour of milk these days? Red maybe? It is white of course, unless your supplies are flowing straight out of Grace Mugabe’s dairy farm, so says the rabid press and thousands of citizens of that cyberspace community known as Facebook. Zimbabwe’s first lady has in recent weeks been the subject of her […]
2009
Posted inNews/Politics
Sakhile’s empty victory
Retired former liberation heroes (like Nelson Mandela) and struggle stalwarts now turned into government ministers (like Trevor Manuel) cannot enjoy the sight of upheavals like those in Sakhile township near Standerton, Mpumalanga or Khutsong in Carltonville. Can you believe the number of disgruntled people who want the world to believe that our democratic government is […]
Posted inGeneral
Was UFS vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen right to drop charges against the Reitz Four?
This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: Was UFS vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen right to drop charges against the Reitz Four?
Posted inMedia
Would ‘Got Eggs? Donate some!’ work for you?
“Got Eggs? Donate some!” Even you have to admit that is an arresting headline, especially when it appears, not in your local Pick n Pay, but a doctor’s waiting rooms. The brochure on which this headline was displayed was a soft pretty pink, so it was immediately clear what kind of eggs they had in […]
Posted inGeneral
Saving the ANC from itself
Not too long ago I had a conversation with an ageing Bra Mike at Prestige Park, as Diepkloof Extension is known. I was gobsmacked when he asserted that President Jacob Zuma is the last of the African nationalists who truly believes in serving the people and putting their interests first. “After him, this country is […]
Posted inGeneral
Copenhagen debate heats up
The lead up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit this December is not looking particularly promising. The world is split into two camps and in the past few months they have both been drastically lowering what can be expected from them in December. On the industrialised nation front, the European Union has come out and said […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The creativity of terror
We’ve all seen those videos on the news where Osama bin Laden speaks, delivering messages about blowing stuff up, the evilness of this or that person, calling this nation or that nation the scourge of the planet and threatening them with a painful death and imminent destruction. The ones that really set his place in […]
Posted inGeneral
All aboard for doomsday!
By Roger Diamond There is a train moving across the countryside and we are all on board. Somewhere, ahead on the tracks is a bridge that ends in space where the tracks have been blown up long ago. If the train carries on moving, it will eventually plummet over the edge of the bridge and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Join the Jansen-bashing queue
The gloss of Professor Jonathan Jansen’s inauguration as vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State has been taken off by the resounding criticism of his decision to drop charges against the “Reitz Residence” students. Four students were suspended when a 2007 video came to light where they were humiliating five staff at their residence. […]
Posted inGeneral
Time for Saru to lay down the law
Why the fecking hell are Saru continuing to allow themselves to be bullied by Aus in the Sanzar alliance? It makes absolutely no sense at all from any angle. New Zealand has 145 472 players registered with its 26 (mainly marginal) unions. Australia has roughly 150 000 in a good year. South Africa is blessed with about […]
Posted inGeneral
Yet another Fifa balls-up
Can somebody please explain how Fifa goes about running “world” football? If it truly claims to represent the interests of world football, why is it that Europe and the Union of European Football Associations (Uefa) seem to get a better deal than the rest of the world? First we have to look at the World […]
Posted inGeneral
World Cup lessons from South Korea
Despite the recent hysteria, there was much to admire about Joel Santana who took the plunge by taking the reins of a national team (for the first time) which had the added responsibility of hosting the 2010 World Cup. Despite a shaky start to his tenure 18 months ago, Bafana Bafana found their feet under […]