The harassment of e.tv journalists to produce the criminals who were part of their exposé is a direct result of the knee-jerk reaction that our crime fighting strategy has become in South Africa. Someone must have briefed the government security cluster and said that rough street justice is going to win the day. I am […]
2010
Posted inNews/Politics
Shaik pardon would be an unconstitutional act of grace
By Loammi Wolf The envisaged pardons for Shaik in exchange for setting Eugene de Kock and 179 IFP political offenders free, raise several constitutional issues. Before I say a few words about the constitutional tenability of pardoning with the separation of powers in a constitutional state, I would like to focus on the pardoning of […]
Posted inGeneral
An African home for Haitians?
By Mncedisi Mashigoane The crisis in Haiti has elicited all kinds of generous global responses. Of all the pledges to Haiti so far I find Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade’s the most ingenious. On behalf of the 13 million citizens of Senegal, Wade pledged R7.4 million in emergency aid and announced plans for a televised fund-raising event. On […]
Posted inGeneral
The silent generation
By Brendah Nyakudya As a thirty-something born and raised in Zimbabwe, my generation had it easier than most. We could be termed the first fruits of freedom, the first generation to be raised in an independent Zimbabwe, a liberated land brimming with hope, excitement and possibility. The war for independence in the 70s was a […]
Posted inLifestyle
Suburban South Africans make the worst neighbours
Suburban living is a whole new experience to me. Having grown up mainly in rural and peri-urban areas across the country (with the notable exception of eMalahleni / Witbank), “big city” living (if one can call Tshwane that) was foreign to me. At least I was eased into it by spending the first two years […]
Posted inGeneral
Mickey Mouse or King Arthur? And the future?
It was a so-so day, with the humming of work and industry (there is an auto-repair shop adjacent to my office) filling the air with rands and cents. During a moment of “downtime” (ie procrastination), I was surfing the web and was surprised to read of the departure of Mickey Arthur as South African cricket […]
Posted inLifestyle
South Africans, ah but your land is beautiful!
I attempt to give an imaginary person who wants to visit South Africa an idea of what South Africa is like. Thank you so much David from Uzbekistan for your questions about my country. I must say, your name is pretty normal, not that it wouldn’t be normal if it were Uzbekistani-sounding, not that I […]
Posted inMedia
Good tidings for African journalists
“We needed it [this fund] back in 2002,” said Gugulethu Moyo, new director of the Media Legal Defence Initiative, referring to the Mugabe government’s suppression of the Daily News eight years back. The company owning the paper still sat with legal bills of $500 000 dollars (US — not Zimbawean!) dollars as a legacy of the […]
Posted inGeneral
The biggest political questions of our time
The previous decade was rough, at many levels. This new decade, the 2010s, brings some hope. However, the risks remain on the upside — politically, globally, personally and so on. The 1990s were said to be a lost decade — Adam Roberts thinks the 2010s might be “decadent”. The Americans are suggesting that this decade […]
Posted inGeneral
From legislated oppression to legalised exploitation
I note the extent to which the talks around ownership to the vuvuzela have since degraded to the shallow, and shudder with remorse as to how Africans continue to be accomplices in the death of their own destiny. But frankly, I couldn’t care less about who owns the vuvuzela concept, but rather about justice being […]
Posted inGeneral
Amla: A beer for your sainthood
An interesting email did the rounds last week. It was an open letter/apology from a former South African Breweries (SAB) employee to Proteas batting star Hashim Amla, which was posted by Bobby Skinstad on his personal blog. The story goes that when Amla requested to be exempt from advertising the alcohol beverage sponsor on his […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Free Harrath, then make him our special guest
Though the deportation of the head of the British Islam Channel, Mohamed Ali Harrath, has been temporarily blocked by an interim interdict, the questions regarding the basis for his arrest and continued detention — at this stage — have yet to be explained by police authorities or the government. Accepting for the moment that Interpol […]