General

Luke Watson is incredibly difficult to like. Mind you, I fall into the side of those who believe he gets a pretty raw deal as a player and a person, but its pretty obvious that, Bhutana Komphela aside (hands up anyone who thinks Komphela is presenting his own agenda when he shoots off the hip? […]

With the whole country agog in the face of the rumblings within (and without) the ruling party, I thought I should write on something else, lest the party in question come to the erroneous conclusion that it is the only thing worth writing about, which it certainly is not. In fact, every time, lately, that […]

Submitted by Patric Tariq Mellet It seems that there is a poor understanding of the history of the anti-apartheid struggle when it comes to the Springbok brand. It is the one brand of which all national groups may well be proud. Butana Komphela has asked for any evidence that evidence exists in history for such […]

One sometimes has to wonder, open mouthed, at the myopia of people within rugby administration and their inability to recognise how to be relevant in modern day society in South Africa and the rest of the world, especially when the game of rugby exposes the raw nerves and synapses of the nation. The obsessive, compulsive […]

South Africa is abuzz with tales of “controversial social networking platform” Facebook and the group “Ek laaik nie n houtkop nie sou what“. Ok. So, people, catch a wake up. This is social media. We’ve taken a soapbox, amplified the volume and opened it up to the entire country. You’re going to get some idiots. […]

Spare a thought for the tens of thousands of South Africans – and Africans – who are creating (and stockpiling) World Cup-themed products. Young KwaZulu-Natal artist Sicelo Ziqubu is creating 2010-themed papier-mâché decorated thrones, which are being snapped up. Tomas Majebe from Cameroon is making a “small fortune” selling his oil on canvas 2010 stadium […]

When Mickey Arthur took over the senior national team from Ray Jennings, he bowled the media over with brave talk. Mickey spoke about brave cricket, brave decisions and brave selection. It was evident that a new era has dawned. We all bought into his vision, for Mickey arrived at a time when SA cricket was […]

Regular readers of this space are not in any doubt that the source of my inspiration is a brain that does not function too effectively. A mad brain. Today you will get a glimpse of just how insane I really am. Part of the reason I am struggling to keep up with the demand for […]

“Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it … How does it feel to be a problem?” WEB Du Bois (1868-1963) asks this rather difficult question in his essay of […]

“The new ANC Youth League under Julius Malema wants to wrestle control of the R120-million investment company away from ‘old comrades’ who became ‘millionaires’ in the name of the young people,” reports IOL. Apparently the ANCYL were furious when they were advised that “wrestle”, in this context, did not actually mean physically mutilating the old […]

What if there had never been apartheid and colonialism in South Africa? Who and what would we have blamed for many of our problems today? What if Nelson Mandela had not spent 27 years in prison? Would he still have been as revered by the international community? Would he still have become our president? What […]

The nature of social arrangements among black people appears to have been severely disrupted by their unflattering history. It is troubling when programmes for regenerations of morals are instituted, when you would have assumed that morality is an intrinsic virtue of mankind. Human relations have been ruthlessly distorted by varied pursuits for survival and the […]