General

Come June, SA Rugby will need to come up with guarantees of R3 billion for an event to be staged in 2015 and 2019. And a strategic plan of note. This is the same organisation that if you pop along to their site you will see they are operating off a 2003 and 2005 plan for […]

Religion is not something I usually write about, mainly because I don’t want to offend anybody. It is after all everybody’s choice as to how they nurture their soul. But the Catholic Church’s latest political manoeuvres have gotten to me. Religion is one of those things many people can’t decide, or at least I can’t, […]

There has been a dizzying amount of information pumped out by the Super 14 Rugby teams in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, all of it on team sheets, teams, warm-up games, venues and players beset with injuries — the latest being Dan Carter’s (Crusaders) Achilles tendon op to Jaque Fourie’s (Bulls) hand. It’s almost […]

By Melika Singh What kind of society is this? What kind of society impoverishes and alienates a majority, and enriches a minority? What kind of society promotes survival of the fittest before empathy and humanitarianism? What kind of society is this which excludes the majority from education — a vital human need? What kind of […]

Education is universally the most powerful tool for the emancipation, liberation and empowerment of the oppressed and marginalised. It is also the backbone to all life and fundamental to spiritual dynamism, moral integrity, personal freedom, political stability and economic growth. Language is critical for African learners as it is for English and Afrikaans-speaking learners to […]

I attended a TV talk show recently where they debated the morality of polygamy. I was on the panel because I had written a piece on polygamy in January last year. The blog got tongues wagging. It was subsequently, and maybe more eloquently, covered by respected social commentators like the irrepressible Ndumiso Ngcobo, among others. […]

There are a lot of people who talk the talk about making a difference so it’s always such a treat to find groups who walk the walk too. I’ve been on the lookout for an inspiring cause to support and last week I stumbled on the perfect one (for me, with my love of books […]

Words have consequences. That is why the Germans speak of ‘Schreibtischtaeter’: people who were innocent of killing any Jews, gays or Gypsies in person, but who contributed to the holocaust through their writing.

When I got back to the office from court this morning I bumped into Joost van der Westhuizen, the former Blue Bulls and Springbok scrumhalf who was recently inducted into the Rugby Hall of Fame. Winner of everything the game has to offer, including the World Cup 1995, I was surprised to see that this […]

The internet, and particularly the ebook industry, is littered with debates about aggregation and monopoly, and in many of those debates the two concepts are confused. Let’s be clear: aggregation is good, monopoly is bad. For instance, a serious discussion is finally emerging over the Google Books settlement, a discussion that recognises the value of […]