I hope this letter finds you in the best of health and spirits, after a restful evening, sleeping in your heavily guarded homes and state of the art security systems. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for my neighbours and I who were left reeling after a burglar scaled my property’s fence last night. On […]
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 inNews/Politics
Hillary Clinton: Lights, camera, no reaction
By Mphoentle Mageza In a recent controversy that played itself out in the media, NBC and CNN have backed away from projects about Hillary Rodham Clinton. Is it completely negative, rejecting her brand of feminism, as one may claim? Does it develop a positive tone, as Charles Ferguson, who was to have directed the CNN […]
Posted inNews/Politics
We need a national development plan for the soul
By Russel Botman Close on 20 years after South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy through a negotiated political settlement, our country finds itself at a crossroads again. Progress in many areas has been commendable, but in others the pace of change has been far too slow. And in some areas things have actually deteriorated. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The privatisation of the Zimbabwean state
By Mike Mavura There is consensus that safety, security, justice and the rule of law are core functions of the state as well as basic service delivery, financial and macro-economic management, inclusive growth and job creation, the protection of human-rights protections and so on and so forth. These are state responsibilities stipulated in the constitution […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The People vs Red October
By Sipho Singiswa Many will wonder at how almost less than six months before its 20th anniversary celebrations present-day South Africa is still plagued by racist, white supremacist hate speech spewed forth by the likes of Dan Roodt, Sunette Bridges and Steve Hofmeyr. These views get peddled and masqueraded as “freedom of speech” yet the […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Black consumers fuel white privilege
By Ntombenhle Khathwane While I laud Gillian Schutte for calling out white privilege and racism on radio and on her blogs — I assume in an attempt to rid our society of such thinking so as to create a more equitable society — the most she can do as a white person is call it […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Voting is no favour to any political party
By Gugu Ndima There is a growing concern at the rate in which the loosely categorised “born-frees” or “Mandela generation” is registering to vote. The current percentage of young people eligible to vote between the ages of 18 and 29 currently sits at 8.4%. As a nation this should be of grave concern given that […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
I love and hate Mitchell’s Plain
By Kirk Krotz This has been one of the most interesting weeks of my life. I posted a music video on YouTube last week about my experience of growing up in Mitchell’s Plain and, for reasons unknown to me, the video has gone viral with over 200 000 hits. For the first time in my life […]
Posted inGeneral
One Young World summit a ‘blast’
By Sungani Phiri The world’s biggest youth summit kicked off in Johannesburg on Wednesday October 2. Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan opened the One Young World Summit with an inspiring speech which focused on change, education and leadership. This year’s panel included some great minds in business, media, leadership and entertainment. Among those […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Lessons for Kenya after Westgate attack
By Jillo Kadida Ever since a bunch of terrorists lay siege at Nairobi’s upmarket Westgate mall, resulting in a three-day-long standoff, Kenyan security forces have been working hard to bury their shame in an avalanche of messages promoting national unity. But three factors show they slept on the job. During the operation there were glaring […]
Posted inBusiness, Media
Micro-marketing: New opiate of the masses
By Rifqah Luzita Naidoo The trends of consumer culture have most certainly evolved since the late 1940s, where critics considered people as being given superficial morals through the mass media. On the one hand technology has brought things closer; we have the world wide web, online shopping and an application for everything under the sun. […]
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, News/Politics
Peeking under the line
By Aragorn Eloff Earlier this week I received a Facebook invite for an event that, noble as it seems, left me feeling more than a little uncomfortable. Here’s the invitation for “Live Under the Line“, an initiative by the religious organisation Common Good Foundation: “Did you know that there are currently 13 million South Africans […]