On average a game of 80 minutes of Super 14 rugby, has just 34 minutes of playing time. The rest of the 47 minutes is directly attributable to the referee and how he blows the game. The standard of refereeing this 2010 Super 14 competition has gone from bloody awful to absolutely flawless. However, no […]
2010
Posted inGeneral
Is SA the new Zimbabwe?
Many South Africans have been asking this question for a number of years now but when the Scottish Sunday Herald starts making it a featured item then the time has come for us to put the question to ourselves. The article is by Fred Bridgland, a British writer and biographer who first revealed South Africa’s […]
Posted inGeneral
It’s time for the farmer to kill the farmer
When Juju and his supporters sing about killing farmers, I am sure the image they have in their minds is a man like Eugene Terre’Blanche. The so-called “boer” — stuck in his verkrampte politics. A man who defines himself by racial rhetoric and old ideas. When the AWB talk about tooling up for the third […]
Posted inGeneral
A bloody reffing rant
At the beginning of every season the call goes out from the rugby public for refs to blow according to the laws. Strictly according to the laws, I might add. Then the games begin, and refs blow for so called miniscule infringements and the call changes to, refs must help keep the game flowing. Or […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Cats, karakuls and communications scenarios
It was topsy-turvy at two conferences in Johannesburg last week. What you’d expect was not what happened: Delegates at the event convened by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) concentrated on … broadcasting. Those attending the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association included internet and mobile in their sessions. It wasn’t quite the “Negroponte switch” where what’s on the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Malema relents, grants Zuma a last-minute reprieve
While Malema conceded that the ANC government had the right to express its opinions, senior members could not act to endanger the position and standing of the ANCYL. ‘The ANC is not an independent body. It exists within the umbrella policy and discipline of the ANCYL,’ Malema said.
Posted inNews/Politics
Selebi trial leaves more questions than answers
By Sam Sole There is little pleasure in watching Jackie Selebi unravel under cross-examination in the South Gauteng High Court. The case is too cold for that. Selebi is far from the swaggering figure he was when he was commissioner of police (General Cele take note) — and he could bank on the president and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Achieving more with your vote, the natural way
“So much for the Prague Spring”, mumbled the chattering classes a year ago today as they waddled off to cast their ballots and so help end all the post-Polokwane fun Mzansi was having. With this little memory sparking anticipation of reams and reams of one-year reviews of the Zuma government’s performance by every other hack […]
Posted inGeneral
Boys and girls are different!
By Matthew Glogauer Feminism is old news! We’re supposed to be living in a society where gender equality is well-established and an absolute norm (for the purposes of this article I’m talking about educated, urban SA, mostly in the corporate space). This is the “anything you can do, I can do better” world and time, […]
Posted inGeneral
2010 World Cup puts SA’s problems into perspective
Last week’s 50-day countdown to the Soccer World Cup was slightly more subdued than the big ‘100’ back in February, but that’s probably because so many hurdles have been cleared since then. The consensus — according to the government, the 2010 Local Organising Committee and Fifa — is that it’s all systems go for a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Nationalism isn’t the answer
It was late. I was tired and trying to find my way out of the city. It must have been Maas op ‘n Maandag (“Maas on a Monday” on RSG) on the radio, because it was Deon Maas (aka Witboy) who interrupted Wits sociologist Andries Bezuidenhout’s remarks on nationalism to try and interpret it for […]
Posted inGeneral
Dear Steve, praat sense of hou jou bek
Unlike you, I struggle to take things lying down. Your dramatic pamphlet is problematic. I’ll elaborate. Firstly, when you need album sales, you become as Afrikaans as you can, then when it suits, you cling to these imagined roots. Last time I checked, yours were blond, big guy. So don’t go double-crossing that bridge, the […]