General

Six years back, my friend who used to work for SAB argued that “beer sells itself” and that the brewery’s key duty was simply “to promote an enjoyable drinking experience”. A couple of months back the Fifa Local Organising Committee (LOC) raised a similar argument relating to marketing the Fifa Confederations Cup tournament (FCC). Does […]

It was a daring mission; unprecedented in its audacity and ferocity. At 04.37am, the precision missiles were launched from an unpiloted aircraft flying somewhere over the Ozurenje valley. They swiftly streaked through the fading darkness at almost twice the speed of sound over a distance of 1 955 kilometres, across three countries with coordinates homing in […]

Kahndisthi as an impediment to human solidarity for sustainable development If jealousy is indeed the green-eyed monster that gnaws at ones very soul forcing the person into a state of derision and acquisition for the purpose of being competitively displaced; then kahndisthi, as the mechanism and indeed substance of envy itself, must be an impediment […]

The ongoing war of attrition by Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe is getting uglier by the week. So much so in fact that in the Sunday Times this week former Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon suggests that Hlophe is some sort of fifth columnist who is destroying our justice system from within. There is […]

If ignorance really is bliss, South Africans must be among the happiest people this side of the Big Bang. The fact that we are not is alarming; or rather very, very frightening. Or should be. Okay, confession time: I’m distorting the original meaning of the adage. Most of us understand it to mean that not […]

By David Smith So we got this war going on. Between a cartoonist and a president. They are at each other’s throats like dogs. Tussling and grappling. Pulling and biting. Snarling and barking. Drawing showerheads. Threatening lawsuits. Speaking on the TV. Crying on the radio. Banning programmes. Leaking programmes. Shouting at the top of their […]

Jacob Zuma has consistently demonstrated an uncanny ability to be everything to everyone; saying all the right things at the right time. He seems to have the need to please everyone; something that would suggest a sense of disturbing insecurity about him. It is generally leaders who lack confidence in their capability who seek broad […]

The email took me by surprise: As a high-profile blogger on Sports Leader and as one of SA’s leading athletes, I have been selected by phone giant Nokia to test their super-expensive N79 cell phone. The catch? I have to look after the phone for two months, using the sleek Polar heart-rate monitor and the […]

That squiz at Zuma’s State of the Nation Address comes after my thoughts on beliefs, or beliefs on thoughts; they are interchangeable. Once upon a time, not so long ago in fact, I thought I would skip a day’s work here in Shanghai and dreamed up the typical excuse that I was sick and settled […]

The internet since first conceived in the late 1980s has been a place of innovation. There has been so much innovation that you’d think it would be hard to single out an innovator or innovation which stands out above the rest. But there is one innovator and innovation, which is head and shoulders above the […]

“I met a couple of South Africans in the hotel lobby the other day and they asked me how I was involved with the Lions. When I told them I was the defence coach they just said, ‘best of luck mate’.” Shaun Edwards, British & Irish Lions defence coach “I have invited Australia and New […]

A few days ago we had gathered in Athens, Greece, for a conference on participatory democracy. The conference organisers had certainly chosen an appropriate city — the city where democracy started. On a free conference day some of us made our way to the Acropolis to visit the memory of Socrates and actual council square […]