Most of you will recall the cover of the /New Yorker magazine which depicted US President Barack Obama as being Muslim and his wife as a gun-toting terrorist. It appeared in July last year and resulted in such a deluge of hate mail, threats and outrage that you would have thought it would have given […]
Michael Trapido
Mike Trapido is a criminal attorney and publicist having also worked as an editor and journalist.
He was born in Johannesburg and attended HA Jack and Highlands North High Schools.
He married Robyn in 1984 (Mrs Traps, aka "the government") and has three sons (who all look suspiciously like her ex-boss).
He was a counsellor on the JCCI for a year around 1992.
His passions include Derby County, Blue Bulls, Orlando Pirates, Proteas and Springboks.
He takes Valium in order to cope with Bafana Bafana's results.
Practice Michael Trapido Attorney (civil and criminal) 011 022 7332
Posted inNews/Politics
The Pikoli gambit
Advocate Vusi Pikoli was suspended from office as the National Director of Public Prosecutions by former president Thabo Mbeki on 23rd September 2007. Following this, on 28 September 2007, an inquiry, chaired by Dr F Ginwala was established in terms of section 12(6)(a) of the National Prosecuting Authority Act No 32 of 1998 (the Act), […]
Posted inGeneral
SAA: Cocaine or zol sir?
Forget Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, if an SAA flight had taken off from La Guardia and ploughed straight into a gaggle of geese, then the last thing our mob would have needed to do was ditch the plane in the Hudson. No, your average SAA crew seems to carry enough goed on board any given flight […]
Posted inGeneral
British boy (13) fathers child: His mother should be spayed
I spoke to our vet and he seems quite happy to have Nicola Patten, mother of 13-year-old Alfie who has just fathered a child, spayed and if that doesn’t work, put down. His diagnosis was that this wenner “probably has mad cow disease or, at a push, a severe case of swine fever”. The mother-of-the-year […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Zimbabwe edging towards a military coup?
The Observer on Sunday and the Times of London this morning in a headline article are both speculating on the possibility of a military coup in Zimbabwe. They allege that a wedge is growing between the Joint Operations Command (JOC) and President Robert Mugabe and the aim is to seize control of the country. “A […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Niehaus, Bennett and the birth of Malemaisms
The ANC’s confirmation that spokesperson Carl Niehaus will not be abandoned despite the revelations made in this weeks Mail & Guardian is, in my humble opinion, highly commendable. Instead of taking the path expedient and getting rid of him they have opted to recognise a lifelong contribution and face the invariable slings and arrows that […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Bashir indicted for war crimes, what about Bush, Blair?
Reuters reported that International Criminal Court judges had elected to indict Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur. They also confirmed that there was a warrant issued for his arrest, which they later amended to say that the judges were still considering the warrant. Though allegations of genocide in Sudan […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Cosatu: Anti-Semitic?
Readers who are of a mind to do so may scroll back and go through articles where I have tackled Islamophobia. This is an exercise I have done repeatedly not for any recognition but because I believe that intolerance is an evil which should not be allowed to go unchecked. It has also included an […]
Posted inLifestyle
Reflections on a diplomatic tête-à-tête
Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting our former ambassador to Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Vatican, Her Excellency Konji Sebati, who was due to fly out later in the afternoon to assume her position as our new French ambassador. Her Excellency is a medical doctor who grew up in Soweto and worked for the Pfizer […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Cope should put Moeletsi Mbeki forward as presidential candidate
Over the weekend we were treated to speculation regarding the candidates which the Congress of the People (Cope) will put forward for the office of president. The Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota will not per se become the party’s nomination for the top post with his first deputy Mbhazima Shilowa and possibly even former president Thabo […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Zuma laudable but he must step down now
Jacob Zuma’s confirmation that the ANC has leaders who can step in if he is convicted and that he won’t be using the presidency to quash the charges against him is of course commendable but doesn’t alter the fact that he should step down now. The country and the party should not be fielding a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The Zimbabwean equation
If all goes according to schedule, the Movement for Democratic Change’s (MDC-T) Morgan Tsvangirai will be sworn in as the prime minister of Zimbabwe on Wednesday February 11 2009. The unanimous passing of Constitutional Amendment 19 has paved the way for the formation of the government of national unity (GNU), and regardless of how we […]