I once heard Trevor Manuel say: “Let me take out my wooden spoon and stir.” Finally, I realised where his staff learned to use the phrase. Imitation is, after all, the highest form of flattery. It usually means that someone in the National Treasury is going to raise a controversial issue, with all the confidence […]
Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen
Ebrahim-Khalil is an independent public policy analyst and is Chief Editorial Officer (CEO) of Zapreneur - a platform to debate economic transformatiom in South Africa.
Posted inLifestyle
How do you stop an exploding man?
Now and then, a TV series grabs my attention. Heroes is one such series, and it has an example of how TV series are only part of the story, with the internet providing interesting glimpses into other parts of the story. In print, there are comics showing the story. In fact, visually Heroes has the […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Margaret Legum: Thought Leader extraordinaire
In the traffic this morning, I was saddened to learn of the death of Margaret Legum. Margaret was an advocate for new economics. Her columns in newspapers provided a rare view that we could be doing better, and a view completely “out of the box”. In fact, her book is titled It Does Not Have […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Amandla — the magazine
The broader left is seeing a revival in new forms of organisations, and in proposing alternatives in a complex world. A good reflection of this revival is Amandla — a new left South African magazine. As the website progresses I hope we will be able to claim the site as a “lefty” site that embraces […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Development indicators: Has life improved for the poor since 2000?
When speaking about development indicators, I am reminded about how family problems are tackled. The mediators usually start from a position that there are three versions of this story — the two versions of the feuding parties, and the third the truth. In the case of development indicators, the government’s version of the truth is: […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Aluminium smelters: The developmental state gone mad?
South Africa has no bauxite ore! Despite this geological fact, South Africa (and Mozambique) has aluminium smelters. Bauxite ore is the raw material for creating aluminium. The ore comes to us from Australia (and possibly Suriname and Brazil), we process the ore to produce aluminium and then ship it out. If we don’t have bauxite […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Tito marshals us to higher interest rates
It is rare for private-sector economists and Cosatu to agree on anything. But, they have jointly criticised the decision of the South African Reserve Bank to increase the interest rate last week. The basic argument is that the monetary policy committee has gone too far by increasing the interest rate to 10,5%. Or, as they […]
Posted inNews/Politics
City council’s good response to storms is no hoax!
The storm hoax provided a funny reminder of how gullible some of us streetwise Jo’burgers can be. However, there was a real storm and real storm damage in parts of Johannesburg a few days before. In Lenasia — where I stay — the storm on Saturday evening left some parts of our suburb with substantial […]
Posted inTech
The geek as activist
The Geek Freedom League actually exists. Its existence was proclaimed enthusiatically by a usually mild-mannered and friendly chap, who happens to be a family member. But when he comes to open source, he becomes a militant. And like all militants, militancy requires wearing the right gear and having the right slogans. His gear of choice […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics, Sport
Go, Bokke … (Well, most of the time)
Rugby bamboozles me. It must be passing the ball backwards and running forward at the same time. I have also never played rugby — if you exclude a couple of games of that sissy sport touch rugby. Of course, that qualifies me to write an article on rugby. And that’s being more ambitious than wanting […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Cosatu and the ANC ‘top six’ nominations
The reaction to Cosatu’s decision to name its six preferred candidates for the top six positions in the ANC (actually eight candidates, as there are three names for the position of national chairperson) has been predictable. The ANC has described it as arrogant. Several pioneers of the union movement want to discuss the issue with […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Entrance fees at universities :(
On registering (once again) this year for my master’s degree, I was told that a requirement of my registration was paying R4 500. Should I not be able to pay this “initial payment”, I would not be registered for the course. I could afford this as I am working and earning. But, had this been a […]