Michael Trapido

It’s a good thing that floor crossing has become a thing of the past or we’d need a metro cop directing the traffic in parliament about now. In fact the situation has become so fluid, what with all the new parties, breakaways and splits on the go, that it’s becoming harder by the day to […]

With apologies to JK Rowling for borrowing part of the Harry Potter title I believe that the ANCYL president Julius Malema would be wasted doing law through Unisa when a degree in philosophy surely beckons. Philosophy is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as follows : “• noun (pl. philosophies) 1 the study of the fundamental […]

It has long been my view that Barrack Obama will triumph in the upcoming US presidential elections barring an act bordering on World War III. Analysts across the board generally ad idem that if the material issue governing this election is the economy then it’s the Senator from Illinois while a major incident along 9/11 […]

In light of the matric report card of ANCYL president Julius Malema, it is easy to understand where the problems South Africans are experiencing with his leadership may have arisen. Let’s examine just a few of the areas that might be causing the problems: Report Card English C (HG) Afrikaans E (HG) Math H (SG) […]

Over the last year I’ve been looking at the question of a political solution for Jacob Zuma as a possible means of bringing about stability and avoiding conflict within the ranks of the ANC and thereby the country as a whole. As events have unfolded it would appear that whenever the pressure on Zuma in […]

Do you remember the old Peter Stuyvesant adverts? Something like: “When it’s skiing time in St Moritz or the cowboys are bringing in the herd down El Paso way that’s where you’ll find them; for this is the great big wide world of Peter Stuyvesant yadda yadda yadda”. Down here we get: “When the world’s […]

The media are confirming that the National Prosecuting Authority has been granted leave to appeal against the judgment handed down by Judge Chris Nicholson last month in the matter against ANC president Jacob Zuma. Judge Nicholson, based upon the application before him, held the view that another court – the court where the appeal will […]

If ever a man deserves the oblivion that a new election in Zimbabwe would bring then that man is President Robert Mugabe. He and the Zanu-PF’s failure to recognise the miracle that former South African president Thabo Mbeki achieved in arranging a power sharing deal, by failing to allow its implementation as contemplated, has brought […]

Maybe it’s just me but the two-tier cabinet proposal, submitted by the South African Communist Party at the Tripartite-Alliance’s economic policy meeting held over the course of last weekend, appears to be very similar to the central committee and politburo model of the former Soviet Union. Indeed for ‘central committee’ read ‘ANC NEC’ who in […]

The Sunday Tribune has up to 50 standing ANC members of Parliament set to quit the party, Beeld speaks in terms of thousands leaving, while City Press claims that most of the senior people behind the splinter group have been told to stay in place until summoned by the new party. Mosiuoa Lekota confirmed this […]