This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: Should Bafana coach Joel Santana be given the boot?
2009
Posted inNews/Politics
General Cele and our new (read old) army of police officers
Our national commissioner of police has now announced that he will soon become a general as the police force reverts to its apartheid-era military ranking system. Our soon-to-be general tells us that this reversion to a past age is necessary because the demilitarisation of policing ranks in 1995 impacted negatively on discipline in the police. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Obama for what? What about Tsvangirai?
Isn’t it ironic that Alfred Nobel, a man who spent his life designing and working with explosive devices should be responsible for creating the Nobel Peace Prize? Isn’t it even more ironic that President of the United States Barack Obama — who once claimed to be ready to invade Pakistan while still on the campaign […]
Posted inLifestyle
Can poets and clowns save the world?
People studying and working in the social sciences or arts are often called upon to justify the importance of their field in the world of academia. Which is quite normal — if anybody is going to devote huge amounts of time and brainpower to any pursuit it makes sense that others will question the usefulness […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Is the ANC the big bad wolf in Kennedy Road?
Recent reports have emerged about violent attacks in the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban. Members of the Abahlali baseMjondolo (or urban shack-dwellers movement) were pulled from their homes, violently attacked and some of them were murdered. It sounds like somebody huffed and puffed and tried to blow this movement down. Why? But more importantly, […]
Posted inGeneral
Tweet for boobs and SA charities
No, this is not an unsavoury campaign in any way. It is, however, a very noble and innovative campaign aiming at raising money for Breast Cancer Research. Tweet for Boobs is a US-based initiative in which Twitter users can use the tag #tweetforboobs and even mention @tweetforboobs in their status updates. For a good summary, […]
Posted inGeneral
Awulethe Isamoosa Yami!
By Sipho Hlongwane Awulethe umshini wami, ngiyawudinga! I realise that talking of mshini wami is so 2008, but bear with me. We’re a little behind here in the provinces. Four words that forever changed the country. And really, why? As slogans go this is one of the tamer ones out there. Remember “One farmer, one […]
Posted inGeneral
I’m white
By Emil Pohl I’m white. I’m a young white Afrikaans man living in South Africa. Now apparently according to some, I have to feel like a victim for this fact. According to some, I’m being discriminated against permanently, the government is constantly out to get me, and I have to be careful of war from […]
Posted inGeneral
There is no black in the rainbow (nation)
While some are having sleepless nights over the non-existence of “authentic blacks”, can we add another question to the cart? Why is there no black in the colours of the rainbow? If South Africa is, according to the former archbishop Desmond Tutu, a “rainbow nation”, what does that say about non-racism, freedom and democracy? Are […]
Posted inGeneral
Eish, Sharks for the upset anyone?
The Sharks and Western “Problems” are in. The Bulls are a shoo-in and Griquas should be able to do enough to make it. I’m backing Griquas over the Cheetahs because with the Sharks needing a full house of points, the game is surely to open up and Griquas should be able to get the bonus […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Berlusconi decision will interest Zuma
“Italy’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday threw out a law that shields Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from prosecution while in office, paving the way for corruption proceedings to resume against him.” This has thrown Italian politics into the kind of spin that might well be mirrored down here. Recently Helen Zille, leader of the Democratic Alliance, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The darkness ‘makes us interesting’
At an el fresco lunch, on a warm summer’s day in Cape Town a few years back, I reminded Margaret Thatcher of when a former junior minister had vindictively described former Conservative leader Michael Howard as having “something of the night about him”. “That’s what makes us interesting as human beings dear” she replied with […]