Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale has blamed councillors elected during former president Thabo Mbeki’s time as the reason for the latest wave of protests sweeping the country. He then goes on to suggest that it has to be the former government’s fault because this one has only been in power for three months. Minister, this […]
2009
Posted inNews/Politics
Malema put to shame by North Koreans
How has it come to this? Our African National Congress Youth League President Julius Malema reduced to an also-ran in the 2009 World Under-70s Political Sledging Finals. It’s enough to make any self-respecting revolutionary weep. Having slagged his party off, former president Mbeki, party elders, cabinet ministers, Helen Zille, the Democratic Alliance, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the […]
Posted inLifestyle
An embarrassing truth
I just figured out an embarrassing truth. I woke up with an enormous hangover/nausea today, Sunday, my first babbelas in a long time, but I think it was more the rich food (German eisbein and sausages, etc) that I pigged out on which was delivered to our home last night. My wife, Marion, went off to […]
Posted inGeneral
Racism and the power of apology
The Chinese worker suddenly and loudly laughed at me as I strode under my umbrella into the parking lot where our apartment building is on Beijing West road in downtown Shanghai. He stood directly in front of me and laughed, smirking at me: it was a loud, mocking, donkey’s bray. He shouted something at his […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Africa-time is alive and deadly as usual
Almost within minutes of moving into the White House, US President Barack Obama was issuing orders, addressing priorities and meeting ordinary Americans on their terms, in their towns and face to face. He even wrote a note for a 10-year-old girl to be excused from school for attending a town hall meeting with her dad. […]
Posted inGeneral
The white middle-aged, middle-class man
Tomorrow I turn 35. Officially, I become a white middle-aged, middle-class man. And doesn’t it suck balls? There was a time in history when that statement wouldn’t have struck fear in my heart. It would have been a coming of age. The reaching of a pinnacle of human development. In the 1950s we were the […]
Posted inGeneral
Ricky Ponting: The last of the conquistadors
Seneca, the stoic Roman philosopher, said “it is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness”. He makes a fine point. Great men only emerge once they have endured trial and tribulation, exposing the barest shivers of their true character, which will either rise with the occasion or collapse under the weight of […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, Tech
Meet Al Caphone, capo de tutti capi of SA’s telecommunications cartel
In the past six months Vodacom made more than R14 billion, 12.2% better than it performed previously. While millions of South Africans suffer the very worst of the global economic crisis, it seems counter-intuitive that a telecommunications company can bask in that kind of profitability. This should spark great admiration. Until you come face to face […]
Posted inLifestyle
Are you a workaholic?
Hi everyone. My name is Sarah, and I am a workaholic. This is nothing new; I always was a workaholic. My life and outlook always has been dominated entirely by the notion of Getting Things Done. Oh, there was the day job (which, in advertising, is frequently a night job too). I consider my books […]
Posted inGeneral
Email broadcasting done properly
Sending email broadcasts — on the surface — should be one of the simplest and most straight-forward processes. The digital equivalent of stuffing a couple hundred or thousand (or even tens/hundreds of thousands) of letters into envelopes and posting them off. Without the arduous task of printing, folding, inserting and licking, and the time/cost associated […]
Posted inNews/Politics
One Pikoli, two Pikoli, three Pikoli…FORE!
Most of my regular readers will know that I have stood squarely behind former National Prosecuting Authority boss Vusi Pikoli in his bid to regain his position at the head of the NPA. I have done so because Pikoli is a man of unquestionable integrity who showed that he had the courage to withstand the […]
Posted inGeneral
Finding success as a selling club
A selling club is a club that has to sell its most prized assets every season to survive, they don’t generate a lot of money from marketing, sponsorships and merchandise. There are a lot of soccer clubs in Europe even if they play in the lucrative Champions League they still have to sell season in, […]