By Mary Otieno When I was a child, it was taken for granted that during my school vacation visits to relatives in Nairobi, I would spend much of the time doing household chores in exchange for little more than food, transportation, and the excitement of being in the city. Not until years later did 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.
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Posted inBusiness, Equality, News/Politics
Black economic empowerment is not black economic empowerment
By Michael Nassen Smith The BEE drum has been beaten many times before on both the right and the left on South Africa’s political spectrum. A recent piece on PoliticsWeb penned by John Kane-Berman gave what has become a standard liberal right critique of BEE. I think Berman is right to bemoan the influence of […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
White people have much to learn from Eugene de Kock
By Natasha Skoryk In the past few days, Eugene de Kock’s presence at the Franschhoek Literary Festival caused a popular furore. “He had no right to be there,” people have insisted, “He should have known better.” I understand what black South Africans mean when they say this. I can only imagine the unspeakable pain of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Is it time for a third party shake up in US politics?
By Caitlin Dean My husband got up on his soap box last week and now he won’t get down. He is angry, shocked and wants change. Why is he so rankled? Well of course, it’s this US election and more precisely, voting and what he sees as an unfair process. Dear husband’s frustrations with the […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
On decolonising Africa and studying abroad: A response to Zinhle Manzini
By Kgaugelo Sebidi As a Rhodes Scholar who will be heading to the University of Oxford in a few months to read for a master of philosophy in development studies, I must admit that the arguments made in Zinhle Manzini’s blog post “If you are serious about decolonising Africa, don’t study abroad” are short sighted […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
#MabelJansen, as sober as a judge
By Sheena Jonker The idiom speaks not just of a lack of intoxication but of the clarity of mind that we associate with being a judge. We can also say that sobriety is about being solemn, which encompasses dignity, honesty, a sense of decorum and profound sincerity. So we get Judge Mabel Jansen and her […]
Posted inGender violence
Nine ways to make our universities safer
By Esmeralda Sayagues Several South African universities have recently been rocked by student protests deploring the high incidence of campus rape and sexual violence. The students have demanded that universities implement fair procedures that yield justice for complainants and punishment for offenders. In order to address these issues it is useful to look at the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How to get government services to step up their game
By Trevor Watkins Everyone knows we have a great Constitution. Hardly anyone knows what it contains, particularly most “civil” servants. How could this be changed? Most people are really only interested in things that affect them directly – saving money, saving time, cool things, interesting experiences. Tell them that Teazers can stay open because it […]
Posted inGeneral
I’ve seen Donald Trump and he isn’t pretty
By Caitlin Dean When Donald Trump triumphantly descended from that escalator in Trump Towers to announce his candidacy for president, I was bemused and disinterested. I had not been living in the US that long and although I was familiar with the name Trump and what it meant, I knew little about him beyond his […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Psychological scars have yet to heal for victims of Kenya’s election violence
By Sitawa Wafula Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta held a ceremony last weekend to celebrate the International Criminal Court (ICC) abandoning its case against his deputy William Ruto (and journalist Joshua Arap Sang) for orchestrating the violence after their disputed election of 2007. The prosecutor dropped similar charges against Kenyatta himself two years ago, alleging that […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Time for Zuma to go
By Motsumi Maubane The perception that the Gupta family has a hold on President Jacob Zuma, in my mind, constitutes high treason and a serious threat to our national security for this would compromise our constitutional democracy and sovereignty of our South African state. Essentially it would mean the family has usurped executive authority from […]
Posted inSport
New Boks coach Allister Coetzee has most definitely earned a shot at the job
By Dhirshan Gobind The official unveiling of Allister Coetzee as the new Springbok coach was met, unsurprisingly, with mixed reactions from the public and rugby fraternity at large. It was probably the worst-kept secret in rugby circles as most fans already knew exactly who will be named as the Bok head-honcho — weeks before Coetzee’s […]