General

I was watching my son’s rugby team play Kasselsvlei on Saturday morning and so I missed the televised All Black/Springbok Tri-Nations clash at Westpac Park in Wellington.  The night before, I had chuckled at a Facebook warning sent to a friend living in New Zealand: “Don’t go near Wellington tomorrow, Rob. They may put you […]

A little more than a week into my stay in Cape Town, I have encountered a rich and diverse range of apparently new foreign social influences in the city. In the first week I have met a range of people from South Asia, Congo (Brazzaville), Malawi, England, Zimbabwe, the People’s Republic of China and from […]

This is more a question for me than you. You probably don’t care why I don’t write on Thought Leader anymore. But if you do, or you’re bored, here is why. I am looking at an open word doc. Blank. Over the last few months I have done this many times. Always with the intention […]

Contrary to marketers’ beliefs, the black middle-class is not a new phenomenon born in 2003 with the birth of the Black Economic Empowerment Act. There has always been a “big-house” in the middle of the township with its usual four-room houses. There were always a few lonely Cressidas, packed like a tin of Sardine, heading […]

To fight against what is wrong while accepting the likely insignificance of one’s efforts – that’s an elegantly simple philosophy for life. And dauntingly courageous.

I arrived in Cape Town last Friday after spending 14 years abroad. Setting aside larger socio-economic matters (without minimising any of them) I have been pleasantly surprised over the past few days by some of the minor infrastructural changes and improvements in this majestic city. I have been especially impressed by the efficacy of banking, […]

Google Plus (G+) is a major foray by Google into the world of social media. The platform takes the best of Facebook and Twitter and slaps it into one. I affectionately call it TwitFace. And while a small group of techy South Africans have gotten really excited about Google Plus (G+), a training session I […]

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m biased against the current crop of Nokia smartphones. I just think they’re crap — and maybe that’s because I’m a “power user” (although sometimes I think my levels of frustration exceed the everyday consumer). Or maybe it’s just because I’m getting grumpy in my old age. Symbian has simply ceased […]

By Gcobani Qambela The Children’s Act tasks the government with ensuring that children’s constitutional rights to family care and alternative care, social services and protection from all abuse, neglect and exploitation are realised. The government has to realise these rights by making provision for substantial and comprehensive social welfare service interventions. These interventions range from […]

The drug wars, or massacres, in Mexico seem interminable, and irresolvable. The subject of a recent (11 July) TIME magazine’s cover story, details about the nature and extent of the human cost accompanying this apparently ineradicable scourge of Mexican society are almost too horrific to register consciously. (I know what some readers will say: so […]

The Vodacom Challenge is well underway with the pre-season visitors on our shores – the English Premier club Tottenham Hotspurs. They have not been so hot here in SA though. I naturally expect to hear that this is their pre-season tour but when you get paid what these guys get paid, there is no such […]

In 2004 a young John Smit is appointed Springbok Captain under new coach Jake White. The South African Rugby world is somewhat stunned and surprised because they know little of this new Bok captain, the 50th in history. The Boks win the Tri Nations and there no complaints, just compliments. In 2008 our longest serving […]