It took a very special kind of mind to conjure up the idea of introducing a scatological theme into the nativity scene. Somewhere, sometime in the distant past, an anonymous Spaniard said to his mates, “I know how to brighten up our display. Let’s put the queen around the side of the stable.” Somebody else […]
Gavin Foster
Durban photojournalist Gavin Foster writes mainly for magazines. His articles and photographs have appeared in hundreds of South African, American and British publications, and he's also instigated and researched stories for Carte Blanche.
Winner of the Magazine Publishers Association of South Africa PICA Profile Writer of the Year Award in 2008.
South African Guild of Motoring Journalists Motorcycle Journalist of the Year (Magazines) 2015/16/17.
South African Guild of Motoring Journalists Motorcycle Journalist of the Year (Overall) 2015/16.
South African Guild of Motoring Journalists Motorsport Journalist of the Year (Magazines) 2017 - Runner-Up 2015/16.
Manto’s gone, so what?
So Gareth Cliff is insensitive for speaking ill of the dead. We should obviously now accept the word of the ANC that Manto Tshabalala-Msimang didn’t use her influence to hijack a donor liver from somebody who’d been waiting much longer than she had, and the stories about her kleptomania were surely contrived by her political […]
So who is this Che Guevara then?
When the news broke that Durban’s Moore Road was going to be renamed after a famous motorcyclist I nearly choked on my morning muffin. Was the ruling party going soft? Which of our province’s four motorcycle world champions had cracked the nod? The thought of riding my bike down Ballington Boulevard, Ekerold Expressway, Langston Close […]
Semenya saga simply brings out the worst in South Africans
Seldom has there ever been such a clear and insane demonstration of hysteria overwhelming reason as we’ve been subjected to in the last week or so. Every two-bit hack in the country has churned out an article on sex or gender testing, how it’s done, and what it can or cannot prove. Almost every columnist […]
Daddy, I ate the battery! The insanity of the PC brigade
I don’t know about you, but if I bought my kids motorcycles or quads I’d be very, very surprised, not to mention annoyed, if the little bastards ate them. I owned about three bicycles before I saved enough dosh to buy my own 50cc buzz-bike when I was 16, yet I and millions of other […]
Get to know your leaders:let’s have a Big Brother election!
Two dozen political candidates, four hookers, one house, loads of booze, and ready access to weapons. Each candidate would be given R10 000 to protect, all cupboard keys would be removed, and the hookers’ gender balance would be adjusted periodically to match the needs of the remaining housemates. Within a month or two we’d surely […]
Dear Mr Obama — what if Bush won’t go?
Dear Mr Obama, While the rest of the world celebrates your election victory, I worry about the future of your great country. Not because I question your ability to perform, but because everybody, everywhere, is overlooking an enormous and obvious threat to your presidency. What happens if George won’t go? It’s happened before, you know, […]
Point taken? No point!
Picture this. A rep, late for an appointment in the next town, gets caught doing 143 km/h in a 120 zone. The fine’s supposed to be R750, but the cop seems a little reluctant to start writing. Finally, he broaches the subject of “breakfast.” He and his partner, he says, don’t feel like all the […]
Black diamonds, white trash
Marketing people are strange types who, I suppose, have to justify their existence by continuously showing management just how clever they are. It always beats me, though, as to why, at car launches, they feel this huge urge to explain to the media just who their product is aimed at. Of course, every presenter earnestly […]
Clinton or Obama? Don’t ignore the Angry White Man!
Clinton or Obama? The media seem to believe that Election ’08 is strictly a two-horse race, with the Republicans given nary a chance. The question that’s being largely ignored, though, is whether the choice lies only between a black man and a white woman. Although I don’t follow American politics too closely — I loathe […]
Car whores
When in comes to selling cars, the badge obviously means a lot, but for buyers the nameplate often doesn’t tell the whole story. Take that good old South African favourite, the Toyota Hilux. How many of you lot know that in the 1980s Volkswagen assembled the pickup in Europe and sold it as the VW […]
Madiba, the millionaire and the music man: Memories of Michelle
I never met Mandela, but Michelle did, twice. I asked her what she thought of him the first time because I placed huge value upon her judgement, and knew she’d soon be gone. A few months later she was dead, but she’d told us she liked the old man because he treated her like a […]