Posted inBusinessGeneral

Radical Economic Transformation: SMME funding

South Africa has a bipolar economy – pockets of first-world prosperity in a sea of third-world underdevelopment. The SA government has sought to bridge this gap using fiscal stimulus delivered through the social grant system in addition to other infrastructure spending. This has had the effect of lifting, on aggregate, swathes of our people above […]

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Anthem for Kalushi

Kalushi is a period drama with international calibre attention to detail. In one of the opening scenes a shop owner holds out a bank note bearing the image of the infamous man with curly black hair – that is, Jan van Rieebeck himself. This is world class attention to detail. When Solomon and his friends […]

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Beyoncé: a Renaissance man – Part 2

Some two years back I found myself traipsing through Italy in search of the Renaissance and its origins. Rome. Milan. Florence. Pisa. I fondly remember wondering how is it that the fashion of 16th century Italy, had become canonised as the wellspring of universal aspiration. Today I sit here and wonder, how will the fashion […]

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Zuma, ICC and the End of Western Multilateralism

The announcement of the cabinet decision to unsubscribe SA from the ICC (International Criminal Court in The Hague), has been met with the expected reductionism in SA public discourse. This reductionism attributes this ICC withdrawal, solely, to the moral and ethical failings of a single individual – Jacob Zuma – and his motley crew.  Much […]

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A Student Bank to fund free education

#FeeesMustFall is a continuation of the campaign waged by historically black universities. The objective of this campaign is to problematise the current tertiary education funding model. The current funding model places an undue burden on poor, working class and middle income household students. The NSFAS loan model has become a debt sentence for economically poor […]

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Black rage: Does anger justify the means?

“If you do not approve of our methods and tactics of protest, then you are neither with us nor are you for our cause.” This slogan sets a pre-condition for solidarity with a struggle. It requires that one accepts, in good faith, the methods used to advance a struggle. This pre-condition exposes a weaponised logic […]

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Beyoncé: A gallon of Lemonade (Part 1)

When watching Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade, one cannot help but be reminded of the boldness and daring of one Michael Jackson’s Thriller. In 1983 the Thriller music video was received as a masterpiece in how to create a visual spectacle to narrate a soundtrack. That said, Lemonade and Thriller are different beasts. Lemonade is a […]

Posted inGeneralNews/Politics

Zuma-Concourt saga: National question (Episode II)

Thabo Mbeki for a long time used to set and drive the public socio-political discourse agenda in South Africa. Journalists would excitedly wait for his regular newsletter and general musings. After Mbeki was dethroned, we entered an interregnum where political discourse largely oscillated between affairs concerning the person of Jacob Zuma and an extended obituary […]