General

On The Daily Maverick, I recently wrote a column about “fracking” in the Karoo. It was, shall we say, explosive. It got hundreds of comments, many of which I tried to do justice with a reply. It took me four days to write the column, and another three — working 16-hour days — to keep […]

Last time I went egg hunting was two months ago when Spar management surprised everyone and moved their eggs from next to the bread to the fresh produce aisle. They also ran a special on hot-cross buns that day which lead me to believe Spar thought it was Easter — in February. As I shopped […]

By Aragorn Eloff Ivo Vegter was rousing. In a recent article on The Daily Maverick website the well-known local free market ideologue and climate change denialist dutifully performs his well-rehearsed cherry-picking dance of apologist rhetoric in an unsuccessful attempt to ward off the growing grassroots opposition to Shell’s application to prospect for natural gas in […]

The first time I saw a R20 note was in 1993 when I was six-years-old and we were living in Swaziland. I stumbled upon it in the garden and my mother said I could have it. Elated, I impatiently awaited the regular daily passing of the “sucker lady” (our then-version of Madam & Eve’s Mielie […]

Last night I was privileged to listen to naturalist and film-maker David Attenborough (famous brother of the equally famous Richard Attenborough) who is visiting South Africa. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of (natural) Science at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Sir David, who drew sufficient people to fill five venues, in four […]

Just using the word “colleague” when referring to Lucky Dlamini comes across now as presumptuous, even hypocritical. When he was alive, he was just the taciturn cleaning staff member who came in once a day to empty my rubbish bin. I barely did more than grunt my perfunctory thanks, half-annoyed at being interrupted. Lucky was […]

Everybody knows total cost of ownership goes much further than the upfront capital cost of a system, whether a unified communications system or otherwise. What most people don’t see is the golden thread of simplicity that runs through low total cost of ownership (TCO) systems. It is apparent in all the elements of TCO and […]

By Aragorn Eloff When I visit a restaurant my opening line to the waiter is usually: “Hi, I’m vegan. What do you suggest?” What I really mean when I say this is: “Hi, I was just wondering … I don’t eat meat and I don’t want anything with butter in it. Also, no milk or […]

The 2011 World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh could be seen as a success and that is because the tournament had it all. From some tense finishes such as India versus England and South Africa versus India, there were also some fine performances from both bat and ball. Ricky Ponting’s 104 was a […]

I had a most interesting encounter on my last evening in Atlanta (USA) with a cab driver after a night out with some friends. As it turns out, cab drivers in Atlanta are pimps too. I get in the back of the cab and I see a chilled bottle of sparkling wine resting in the […]