General

Okay, I am biased. It is my writing. I am in good company: JK Rowling was turned down six times before her first Harry Potter was published. My memoir, Cracking China, has been turned down about eight times now by various SA publishers and agencies. Interestingly enough, they mostly praised the manuscript and say they […]

Take a bow South Africa. Four free and fair democratic elections on the trot and the country has cleared another significant hurdle en route to hosting the 2010 World Cup. The gruelling election campaign which was frequently marred by political instability over the Jacob Zuma corruption trial has clearly impacted on the psyche of the […]

As I watch the electoral process unfold in SA from China I feel proud of my country. My heart jolted as I wrote the words, “my country”. The elections are being done peacefully, democratically. My heart was warmed by the sight in the Mail & Guardian of a picture of an IEC official helping a […]

This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: How did the Congress of the People lose its way?

It’s great to see an innovative approach to HIV education: Metropolitan and CellBook have created an information booklet — called B the Future — on HIV and Aids that can be downloaded onto your cellphone. An iAfrica.com article explains the concept nicely. To try it for yourself, SMS the word HIV to 32907. My thoughts […]

I spent election day driving around KwaZulu-Natal visiting polling stations both in Durban and Zululand. I started early and headed north to Ulundi and then onwards to Nongoma before making my way back to Durban stopping at various polling stations along the way. Election day was rather slow and sleepy despite the media hype about […]

I walk into the voting station and a surge of emotion overcomes me, maybe it’s adrenaline or my mind is beginning to realise what I’m about to do, I don’t know, I’m not a shrink. I first tell the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) official who had my identity document (ID) to handle it with care […]

(This piece first appeared on tonylankester.com) I’m usually pretty open-minded when it comes to reading or hearing the views of foreign journalists about South Africa. I enjoy hearing their perspectives, even if they are sometimes a bit naive and dewy-eyed. Occasionally I will get frustrated that they fail to see a broader picture or take […]

Martin Luther King Junior, in one of his most powerful sermons ever — the one delivered at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Christmas Eve of 1967 — stated the obvious but critical that “we must either learn to live together as brothers, or we are all going to perish together as fools”. The […]

Forgive me for being an apparent party pooper, but have Everton already won the FA Cup? I could swear that was only the semifinal that they won on Sunday night. I mean, it must be confusing having a match at headquarters — usually reserved for big occasions such as, well, finals — but surely the […]

My wife and I were driving in Garsfontein in the general Tshwane area this past weekend when we spotted a guy in a blue Audi S3 Sport with Jacob Zuma’s grinning mugshot and the words, “Vote ANC” emblazoned on the driver’s side door panel. The first thing that struck me about this is that it […]

The decision by the acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Mokotedi Mpshe, to drop criminal charges against Jacob Zuma, as many commentators and legal experts have said, has no legal basis whatsoever. It is a decision motivated by political considerations and appears induced under duress or undue pressure. Mpshe failed to convince the nation […]