By Isobel Frye The transparency of the South African budgeting system is hailed internationally as a standard for other countries to emulate: its three-year rolling budget allocations, and the use of the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, which is issued three months ahead of the national budget, provide pointers for the priorities that will emerge […]
2010
Posted inGeneral
Open letter to President Jacob Zuma
By Lee Hall Mr President, you state that “ … this right [media freedom] cannot not be allowed to enjoy greater protection than [other freedoms] enshrined in the Constitution”. Strangely enough, it is not so much “media freedom” that is under threat here. Rather, it is my constitutional right to choose freely what information I […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Chopping off foreskins NOT the answer to HIV in our prisons
In an attempt to curb the spread of HIV in its overcrowded prisons the authorities of Kwa-Zulu Natal have come up with a Plan d’Excellence Supreme Edition. Instead of focusing on key problems that form the root of HIV pandemic in its prisons, the province put all their eggs in the ‘let’s treat the symptoms’ […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Still much to be done to persuade the ANC on press self-regulation
The ANC has different views on the press, many of which do not tally
Posted inNews/Politics
Drowning in the incompetence of water affairs
Astonishingly, after a few token squeaks of protest, the opposition Democratic Alliance meekly accepted the minister’s decision.
Posted inGeneral
Identity: A complex thing
In the first of their trilogy of books — Empire, Multitude and Commonwealth — Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri make a distinction between two kinds of racism: “modern racism” and “postmodern racism”. The first, they point out, is recognisable by an essentialism of biological properties, specifically the pigmentation of one’s skin, which is supposed to […]
Posted inGeneral
Yes, Cape Town Opera should boycott Israel!
It appears it is an open season for launching cowardly attacks on Archbishop Desmond Tutu. One thing that we have come to learn about Tutu is his unwavering resolve in the pursuit of justice, equality, peace and freedom of the downtrodden, persecuted and oppressed. He has never been intimidated into silence by those who wield […]
Posted inNews/Politics
South Africans aren’t stupid, Sam
Sam Shilowa and his henchmen – the self-styled Express – insulted not only the intellectual capacity of the members of the party, but South Africans in general. Allegations of misconduct, financial mismanagement, fraud and underhanded tactics haunt the Express and we’re just not buying it. Cope will split, and let me be the first to […]
Posted inGeneral
Sour grapes: PdV sacked for causing poker brawl
Breaking news: Peter de Villiers, the Springbok coach, will at the conclusion of the Springbok’s end-of-year tour to Europe, vacate his position as the No 1 brain with the world champions. Rumours have surfaced, via a high-level source, that De Villiers finally went too far and bluntly put, pissed off his bosses real good. Many […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Torture: Does the government care?
Many of you will have heard the news this morning that the United Nations has heavily criticised the South African government for failing to eradicate torture. Earlier this week there were two reports of torture at the hands of the police. In one report, a member of the South African National Defence Force alleged that […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How did we get here?
How did the “Rainbow Nation” get to this point? How did this downward spiral pick up such momentum that not only are we headed toward the ways of Zimbabwe, we are gladly embracing the destination? Did this happen because as a people we have relinquished our responsibilities to politicians? All nations have a point where […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why Liu Xiaobo shouldn’t have been awarded the Nobel
Last week in an op-ed piece in The New York Times, Thorbjorn Jagland, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, defended the awarding of the Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. Asserting that “international human-rights law and standards are above the nation-state”, that “ideas of sovereignty have changed over time” and that “the world” has […]