By Nosipho Sokhela The ultimate male was the kind that telegraphed letters confessing his undying love, the kind of man that would open the door, kiss your hand before diving in for the big one. Confident enough to catch your attention yet humble enough to retain it despite his initial success. Time and again I […]
Reader Blog
On our Reader Blog, we invite Thought Leader readers to submit one-off contributions to share their opinions on politics, news, sport, business, technology, the arts or any other field of interest.
If you'd like to contribute, first read our guidelines for submitting material to this blog.
Posted inLifestyle
The December great trek
By Janet Lopes As the December holiday approaches every year South Africans across the country begin to prepare for the new great trek. The pack-up and leave-home drive is almost primeval in its urgency — a ritual of pilgrimage embedded in our subconscious since we were children. In South Africa, the first and probably the […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Let’s enjoy freedom from electricity
By Kyle Allan In light (apologies for the ironic use of the word in this context) of the current Eskom shortage, and due to the great impact this is having on our national trauma levels, I have humbly submitted the following succinct guide to surviving, making it through, and even thriving under the current load […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Ray-Ban, Sea Point, you didn’t make nice, man
By Charlotte Johnson I work in public art. I take public art personally. I also believe in its relevance and importance in shaping our cities. And so, I cannot muffle the offence that Perceived Freedom has caused me. And many others, for a number of different reasons. Firstly, public art costs money. A fair amount […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
I am not my hair
By Phumzile Twala I hate being called names. I grew up in Soweto, where people come up with interesting and new terms just about as often as taxi drivers cut off other motorists on the road every day. I’ve been called all sorts of names over the years. But none have baffled me as much […]
Posted inBusiness, General, News/Politics
Step on the corruption scale
By Abuti Rams Say you were to step on the “corruption scale”, how much do you think you would weigh? Just like most people, I have a problem with corruption in its diverse forms. In recent years, most of our media reporting has exposed corruption on all levels of government (be it local, provincial or […]
Posted inGeneral
Letting the curtain fall
By Lawrence Kritzinger It is Sunday evening. For whatever reason, my subconscious has been regaling me with choice tidbits from my memory banks, not all of them pleasant. They disturb me, and so I write. I don’t know how else to process them. So permit me this self-indulgence, please. Sometimes, death wrenches someone from us […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Apartheid, torture and the potential for forgiveness
By Dylan Wray George* is a history teacher. He used to be very high up in the apartheid security police in the Eastern Cape. Zolile* has always been a history teacher. As a young man, he was arrested attempting to flee South Africa to take up arms with Umkhonto weSizwe. George more than likely oversaw […]
Posted inNews/Politics
SA hungry for genuine, effective leaders
By Kriss Mukenge We want more because we sense at the core of our beings that proper leaders bring about positive, true and lasting change; we want more because our memories tell us that the greatest developments and innovations of our times were possible thanks to great leaders who dared to dream more, believe more […]
Posted inEquality
Being disabled doesn’t make you special, being South African does
By Maggie Marx In December 2005, I took my driver’s test in a small town in the Free State. I told the friendly, albeit mumbling officer that I was severely hearing impaired. I also told him that during the yard test I would be able to decipher his hand signals, but that when he got […]
Posted inHealth, News/Politics
Depression never leaves you
By Sifiso Yengwa With Robin Williams’ death still fresh in the minds of many, the issue of depression has once again come to the fore. Nowadays it is generally accepted that depression is a clinical condition that is manageable with drugs and other forms of prescribed treatment. Sadly the majority of people still hold a […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Reflections on Gaza: How should my people be?
By Pedro Tabensky As the son of a Holocaust survivor and a refugee of mid-20th century turmoil, knowledge of the precariousness of existence has always been part of the fabric of my life, and has motivated me permanently to ask: How should I be in a way that pays respect to the suffering of my […]