Retirement, for a world leader, used to mean writing a blockbuster autobiography and swanning around the lucrative international speaking circuit. Nowadays — ask Tony Blair and Thabo Mbeki — it is as likely to mean the threat of imminent arrest and charges before the International Criminal Court. Previously, upon the statesman’s retirement, even lifelong foes […]
2010
Posted inGeneral
Mandela, De Klerk and the bird in our hands
Almost every culture has a version of the story of a group of stuck-up youngsters who confront the village sage with a trick. It is the stuff of many a funeral night vigil speech. It also pops up in motivational talks and sometimes in serious lectures. The sage is wrinkled, old and female. Sometimes he […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why Zuma’s sex life is endangering millions
Recent reports that President Jacob Zuma has fathered his twentieth child with a woman he is not married to have disturbing implications for the battle against HIV/Aids. The three basic tenets of HIV prevention, used to great effect in Uganda in the 1990s, is “Abstain”, “Be faithful” and “Use condoms”. By impregnating a woman he […]
Posted inGeneral
Grand Scam
So the Springboks have an end of season Grand Slam tour scheduled. Very tempting to knock over Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England — (throw in a game against the Barbarians for good measure) — on consecutive weekends after a full Tri Nations and a looming World Cup? Not! Simple solution: send the B team. So […]
Posted inLifestyle
Hollywood’s golden pick…noticed the xenophobia yet?
By Suntosh Pillay James Cameron was named 2009’s best director for his movie Avatar at the recent Golden Globe Awards. The other nominations that had already opened on local screens were Inglourious Basterds and Invictus. Though each of these movies had a distinct cinematic style and belonged to different genres, a common, important thread ran […]
Posted inGeneral
Should De Klerk be in prison with Eugene?
On February 2 1990 ,the last president of the repressive nationalist regime FW de Klerk stood before parliament and made this important and long overdue announcement: “I wish to put it plainly that the government has taken a firm decision to release Mr Mandela unconditionally.” The announcement of the release of Mandela marked a crucial […]
Posted inGeneral
The Champion Tour – a great initiative
South African rugby enjoyed a great season in 2009, with the Springboks beating the British Lions, clean sweeping the All Blacks on the way to Vodacom Tri-Nations glory (including both the Freedom Cup and Mandela Plate) and the Springboks Sevens team claiming their first IRB World Sevens Series title. These titles, plus the Vodacom Bulls’ […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Umshini wethu weSex
Had this been any other country (with the possible exception of Italy), there would have been an uproar over the latest instalment in the increasingly scandalous public life of Jacob Zuma. It astonishes me that there has not been spontaneous calls for the president to step down within government and that his comrades have actually […]
Posted inGeneral
Dark Lords, horcruxes and the lost soul of the ANC
The recent lamentations about the “lost soul of the ANC” reads like something from penultimate instalments of the Harry Potter series. The Dark Lord, which in the ANC, some claim, appears to be Mammon, has split the soul of the organisation. Subsequently various little splinter groups have emerged in possession of the true soul and […]
Posted inLifestyle
What will it take to save the world?
By Roger Diamond Well, let’s just first check that the world needs saving: is this a valid question and one that we should be asking? Let’s each do this ourselves and not just take my word for it. Take a look around you. To do this, you may have to open your eyes wider than […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The ‘bonus’ of polygamy, but only if you’re ‘indigenous’ (Part 1)
A year or so ago a “gentleman’s club” — or, more specifically, a club where women take off their clothes for men in return for money — plastered large promotional posters all over bus stops in Cape Town. The exhibited draw card was a stereotypical arrangement: a group of gaudy women propped up around a […]
Posted inGeneral
Shhhh, don’t say anything, he’s the president
Of all the crazy things I’ve heard since JZ came into power, this is one of the worst. The idea that the media and the public (yes readers, you and me) should not say anything critical of Jacob Zuma because he’s the president is a slap in the face of our already colander-like democracy. Enough […]