General

The commentator had it right. Barcelona haven’t won anything yet, despite their mind-blowing brilliance. I will say one thing, though. They may not have won a trophy this season, but Pep Guardiola’s side have most certainly won the hearts of every football fan out there. Their latest demolition job, in Real Madrid’s backyard nogal, was […]

Irrespective of how you voted or your feelings towards the ruling party, the time has come to afford the ANC and soon to be national president Jacob Zuma and his incoming administration the breathing space they need to get everything up and running. The time for electioneering is over and the future wellbeing of this […]

One of the big stories of the day in the US is the sly means by which mega-corporations are finding less-than-open ways to give their CEOs disproportionately gargantuan packages. Everything from super-cars to private jets to high-profile academic posts to private security. The companies — if and when they respond — bleat about how hard […]

Submitted by Sean Lloyd We’ve all come to look up at certain people in our lives and often the brands we use are ones that have in some way been endorsed by someone we look up to. From Lance Armstrong, Nike and Oakley, to Kelly Slater and Quiksilver, each brand has a face to it […]

Unity is the mantra of every politician, whether inspired by well-meaning intentions or purely populist rhetoric and self-serving interests, it is a constant refrain. A united country seldom serves the immediate populist interests of holders of public office. When all of us are unified by common interests, populists lose an effective weapon to use in […]

At the risk of sounding like a wounded old journalist, let me share a story about the forgotten hero of South African journalism, one Percy Tseliso Qoboza. I, like most aspiring journalists in the 1970s and 1980s, have looked up to him as an icon and inspirational figure. In addition, he was a charismatic figure […]

Bertrand Russell in his treatise, Political Ideals (1917), expounded that: “In dark days, men need a clear faith and a well-grounded hope, and as the outcome of these, the calm courage which takes no account of hardships by the way. The times through which we are passing have afforded to many of us a confirmation […]

Kabamm! The armoured truck does a roughly 270 degree belly flop, hurling Wolverine into the air towards the military helicopter that’s trying to gun him down. Snikt! His newly minted adamantium claws (he only gets the “virtually indestructible” metal version halfway through the movie) flash in the sunlight as he sails through the air and […]

So the Zuma Tsunami was really unstoppable after all. This is the greatest news ever. Or a national tragedy of calamitous proportions. Jacob Zuma is one of those individuals who always seem to bring it out in everyone. The passion, I mean. I have yet to meet an individual who shrugged and went, “Zuma? I […]

Whatever your views on Jacob Zuma, who is now certain to become South Africa’s next President, the recent decision by the NPA to bring an end to his prosecution on corruption charges is extraordinary from a legal perspective.  Without obtaining a court ruling that continuation of proceedings would amount to an abuse of process, the […]

I thought that you lot might find it interesting to compare the results of the African National Congress and Democratic Alliance in the 2009 election with those that they achieved in 2004. I have also thrown in the numbers for the 1999 ballot for the statistically insane. This relates to the national assembly only. Overall, […]

Ask any school child older than 13 years of age to tell you something about World War I, the war to end all wars, and the chances are that they will at least have some sort of vague understanding of what transpired between 1914 to 1918 on the killing fields of Europe. After all, what […]