Reader Blog

By Emil Pohl I’m white. I’m a young white Afrikaans man living in South Africa. Now apparently according to some, I have to feel like a victim for this fact. According to some, I’m being discriminated against permanently, the government is constantly out to get me, and I have to be careful of war from […]

By Sadiyya Sheik The social welfare grant has become as common as pain as far as main complaints go. Having spent the past month working at an ARV clinic, I have seen many patients, South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) forms in hand, a determined yet pained expression on their faces, clamouring for a sought-after […]

By Theo Mapheto Just why leaders in South Africa insist on communicating with their followers in a foreign language beggars belief. Take Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe’s address at Ntwampe in Limpopo Province on the occasion of the National Heritage Day celebrations for example. Look, Motlanthe’s first language is Sepedi and the masses who descended to […]

By Tertius Kapp On the very first Heritage Day that South Africa celebrated, I wrote a little essay for a school competition. It described a young man taking to his inherited sheep with a shotgun. I am sure Shaka, the absent father of Heritage Day, would not have approved. Nevertheless, the piece won the competition, […]

By Sonwabile Mancotywa This being a heritage month, I’m reminded of an incident that happened fifteen years back on the same month. While premier of Free State, Terror Lekota removed the statue of Hendrik Verwoerd, which had been mounted in front of the building that housed the provincial administration. Lekota apparently found the mere sight […]

By Adam Currie Well, well, well … I do love to spark a debate and my last little ramble (A Canuck Kaapie) certainly got some individuals blood boiling. A good few old-school Johannes shook their heads, put there brandewyns aside, and decided to give me a good ol’ Groot Krokodil finger wag. I was thrown […]

By Theo Mapheto No doubt, Julius Malema must be the most talked about politician in the country. In the northern suburbs, no dinner table chit-chat is ever complete without a blow-by-blow account of his latest exploits; his woodwork skills being the common butt of jokes and all. Adding fuel to water, President Zuma has issued […]

By Sipho Mazibuko As a recent victim of crime, though indirectly, I initially denied the statistics. Some appeared as mere concoctions by those hell-bent on demoralising our society and undermining our hard-fought democracy. As with almost everything, we don’t believe … until it happens to you. Hoodlums, criminals, thugs, rapists — all brings feelings of […]

By Guy Taylor The emotions that drive us are strange things, anger over the dehumanisation of Caster Semenya, fear of an unknown East taking over an unfit West, and hope for a better day, and a better land that we love. Yes I’m an ardent patriot, doing what I feel is necessary to change the […]