I was busy showing off my mean dance moves at a jazz gig late yesterday, when my phone started to vibrate intermittently in my back pocket. During the break, I then checked my phone messages to see that friends, colleagues and journalists — local and international — had been trying to reach me, either to […]
2010
Posted inGeneral
Sadly, Malema and Terre’Blanche become bigger names than Mandela or De Klerk
The only time that ANC Youth League President Julius Malema appears to open his mouth is to change feet. On Saturday, South Africa’s court jester was singing President Robert Mugabe’s praises and threatening to bring his economic policies — the ones that made Zimbabwe the worst economy in history — back home. Moreover, he showed […]
Posted inGeneral
Is ET really a martyr?
Eugene Terre’blanche was murdered as he slept on Saturday night. Now ET was as controversial as they come in South Africa. To some he was a brave charismatic leader who went all out for his cause. To others he was an anachronism and a living embodiment of the darkness South Africa emerged from almost two […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Please don’t turn the Terre’Blanche murder into a race issue
It is understandable that when one of South Africa’s best-known racist is murdered on his farm, that there are some people who will read racism into his murder. It even suits the political agenda of some people who campaign against the murder of white farmers by black people. But no matter how racist AWB leader […]
Posted inGeneral
One for Azazel: The paw-paw, the fan, and Eugene Terre’Blanche
“Therefore the tragic figure of our times is perhaps the one who takes the guilt on himself to validate our fear or hate,” said Dr Johns. — Etienne Leroux, Een vir Azazel Six years ago I was Eugene Terre’Blanche. On stages throughout the country, I echoed those mad speeches that drove confused young men towards […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Sad that Eugene Terre’Blanche is dead
My first reaction to reading about ET’s death was that it was an April Fool gag. But the news had already been reported worldwide, and I realised it wasn’t. And felt nostalgic. Let me speak for the good guys, people like me. Good guys, regardless of political leaning, seem to need people we love to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Noxious, but not deserving banning
To argue that there is no judicial solution to provocative sloganeering is not to contend that there is no political solution.
Posted inGeneral
The racial divisions of class keep racism alive
By Zukiswa Mqolombo I read a thought provoking piece by fellow Scholar, Suntosh Pillay. His was a response to Andile Mngxitama’s little red book Blacks can’t be Racist. His proposition contested Andile’s one, and sought to affirm that black people in postmodern South Africa can be, and often are indeed, racist. This prompted my short […]
Posted inGeneral
Six Nations vs Tri-Nations: And the money goes to …
International rugby is really squaring up to a North vs. South battle between the hemispheres, as to who gets to harvest the financial returns or not. The next five years will be particularly challenging for the Sanzar countries in spite of them occupying the top three slots of the International Rugby Board rankings, with little […]
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ANC reversing ‘shoot the boer’ will test the Constitution
The African National Congress has confirmed that it will be taking legal steps to reverse the decision of the South Gauteng High Court on Thursday which granted an interdict against ANCYL leader Julius Malema singing dubula ibhunu [shoot the boer]. ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu issued a statement on Friday in terms whereof the ruling party […]
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God is at the craps table again
On Wednesay, physicists at CERN fired up the big ol’ Hadron Collider and are now waiting for the magical appearance of the haloed Higgs Boson. This theoretical elementary particle has been dubbed by some “The God particle”, a name physicists despise because it overstates the importance of the Higgs Boson. Good to know that Big […]