Some years ago, former president Thabo Mbeki scornfully dismissed the DA as a “Mickey Mouse party”. Even party leader Tony Leon’s caustic rejoinder that Mbeki was heading up a “Goofy government” could not altogether remove the sting from that taunt. Things are looking quite a bit different now. Even Thabo would concede that the DA […]
David Saks
David Saks has worked for the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) since April 1997, and is currently its associate director. Over the years, he has written extensively on aspects of South African history, Judaism and the Middle East for local and international newspapers and journals.
David has an MA in history from Rhodes University. Prior to joining the SAJBD, he was curator -- history at MuseumAfrica in Johannesburg. He is editor of the journal Jewish Affairs, appears regularly on local radio discussing Jewish and Middle East subjects and is a contributor to various Jewish publications.
Posted inGeneral
Thoughts on a colleague’s murder
Just using the word “colleague” when referring to Lucky Dlamini comes across now as presumptuous, even hypocritical. When he was alive, he was just the taciturn cleaning staff member who came in once a day to empty my rubbish bin. I barely did more than grunt my perfunctory thanks, half-annoyed at being interrupted. Lucky was […]
Posted inLifestyle
The day I was accused of armed robbery
It was many years ago now that one of the most bizarre and upsetting experiences of my life took place, so bizarre, in fact, that with the passage of time it is hard to imagine how it could have happened at all. It began with a phone call from a police investigator, “requesting” me to […]
Posted inGeneral
Irrational venom trumps logical argument in Middle East debate
Part of the challenge of writing for a wider public is resisting being provoked into knee-jerk responses to attacks on what you have written. Sometimes it is OK to simply let contrary viewpoints go by unchallenged, even when they are palpably ill-founded. At other times, though, remaining silent is not an option, and the latest […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Germanophobia is also a problem
Crass and insensitive comments by radio talk-show hosts unfortunately surface from time to time. One of these, brought to my attention in my capacity as anti-Semitism monitor at the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, was in response to reports that one of the World Cup venues had run out of beer. While I can’t cite […]
Posted inNews/Politics
J K Rowling owes me big time
“Jewish author’s estate accuses Rowling of plagiarism” was one of the featured stories in today’s Jewish Telegraph Agency bulletin. According to this, Rowling got her ideas from a 1987 book by Adrian Jacobs (since deceased) entitled The Adventures of Willy the Wizard: No. 1 Livid Land. This is not the first time certain people have […]
Posted inLifestyle
Remembrance of cringes past
All of us have had experiences in our lifetimes that we would very much prefer never to have happened. Who has never wished it was possible to go back in time and, as it were, push the delete button, erasing certain unwanted episodes as if they had never been? Here, I am thinking specifically of […]
Posted inGeneral
The West Bank and Israel: Reasons for cautious optimism
Good news is no news would seem to be the case when it comes to the international media’s reporting on the Middle East. This would seem to be particularly true of the Israeli-Palestinian conundrum, where it is rare to read anything beyond the usual head-shaking reports on poverty, repression, violence and general hopelessness (especially when […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The Swiss ban on minarets and why it should concern us
Although little reported on in our press, a firestorm of controversy has been unleashed by the result of a Swiss referendum at the end of last month banning the construction of new minarets — the distinctive tall spires attached to Islamic mosques — 57.5% of the participating voters supported the proposal. Incongruous though this may […]
Posted inLifestyle
Embarrassing surnames
One can only pity the wretched rugby commentator in straight-laced 1930s New Zealand who, on reading the Springbok team list, was confronted with the name “Ebbo Bastard”. “This one, I think we’ll call Smith”, was what he actually said in the end. In a previous post, I recounted my ordeal over once having to ask […]
Posted inLifestyle
Kaalgat pseudo-liberalism and the Polanski affair
The late Irving Kristol once defined a liberal as someone who, upon witnessing a fourteen-year-old girl engaging in a live sex act, worries about whether she is getting the minimum wage. It was the same Kristol who described a neo-conservative as a liberal who has been “mugged by reality”. Kristol himself is widely regarded as […]
Posted inLifestyle
Crickets from hell — encounters with Parktown prawns
Why is that that Parktown prawns (a misnomer I’ll come back to) elicit so intense a degree of revulsion? True, they are appalling ugly. In addition, their tendency to jump when startled — frequently straight at you — is, to say the least, disconcerting, and the smell of their excreta is indeed revolting. And when […]