You wrote an “open letter” to the secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC), your leader and my leader Gwede Mantashe. It is the duty of all ANC members to assist each other with political education and assistance when these are found to be lacking. Seemingly you lack even an iota of political knowledge […]
Lazola Ndamase
Lazola Ndamase is head of Cosatu's political education department. He is former Secretary General of SASCO.
Posted inNews/Politics
Mbeki’s firing is good for democracy!
Since the sacking of the president of the republic, Thabo Mbeki, South Africans have continued with their daily lives. Of course, this does not mean our people have not reacted. Some are delighted, some saddened by these events. However, not even a drop of blood has been lost. In most African countries, sacking a president […]
Posted inGeneral
Are Africans natural born dictators?
A look at the long list of African dictators, past and present, led one of my friends to declare that maybe it’s in our genes to resort to dictatorial tendencies every time we find ourselves in power. This might seem true, if one were to consider the long list of African dictators starting from Mobutu […]
Posted inGeneral
Zimbabwe negotiations are bound to fail
There has been a lot of jubilation and misguided excitement about the recent Zimbabwean negotiations, what with the European Union praising Mbeki’s mediation effort and the brokering of a memorandum of understanding. Surprisingly this song and dance has not been witnessed by the protagonists (Zanu-PF and MDC) themselves. Clearly this should be a sign that […]
Posted inGeneral
The xenophobia files: Part one
First of all, I apologise to all foreign nationals both directly and indirectly affected by the recent xenophobic attacks. I am not a perpetrator and I do not support the perpetrators, but, as a South African, these stupid attacks were done in my name against our fellows from across the border, and for that I […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Don’t blame racist students — blame their parents
Just a week ago a young white male was mercilessly beaten at the University of Johannesburg by other white males for standing with a black girl. In February, the same university had an incident of a black male forced into a cold shower for some four hours. Now another race driven incident repeats itself, in […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Mondli Makhanya suffers from Mbeki-ism — firing Bullard is a sign of that!
Mondli Makhanya’s paper has been among the chief opponents of Mbeki-ism, which is a tendency to fire those with whom you disagree. However, Mbeki-ism seems to have taken over the Sunday Times. Mondli beware! What Mondli did last Thursday was not only astounding but also embarrassing. How does one fire a columnist on the basis […]
Posted inBusiness
Black economic disempowerment
Given the exaggerated praise that BEE received at its introduction, one would have expected that all of us — blacks — would be rich by now. Not so; we are still wallowing in the same poverty as we did before this empowerment arrived, save for a few black politicians and business people related to one […]
Posted inGeneral
Was it racism or was I paranoid?
Is it possible that my blog “God save us from the racists” was racist? I don’t think so. If there are those who think so, let them convince me of that fact before I can retract. I stand firmly with my views. Interpretation of any aggressive act by a person of another race as racist […]
Posted inGeneral
God save us from these racists!
It is unbelievable that there are those that still view us blacks as kaffirs 14 years since the collapse of the apartheid regime; after what we thought was freedom. So optimistic about our non-racial future were we that Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya even wrote a piece in the Mail & Guardian saying he wished for his child […]
Posted inBusiness
Power to the people, but not through a plug!
I am surprised I am even able to begin this column; this is not to suggest that I will finish it, though. You never know when load-shedding will visit. Electricity is truly scarce nowadays. It is either taken away by load-shedding or through cut-offs of those who do not pay. Load-shedding prevails, whichever way you […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Tiger Brands, give us our daily bread!
The past week, I have been busy taking electricity-evading classes from my township mates in preparation for the 14,2% electricity price increase. Just as I was beginning to learn the basics of electricity evasion, an announcement arrived that said bread would increase in price too. In this blog I was going to talk about electricity, […]