General

Viewing the grave of the Xhosa chief Ngqika a few years ago affected me deeply, but not in the way I expected. Nestling in the foothills of the Amatolas on the site of Ngqika’s “Great Place”, it was once regarded as semi–sacred by the Xhosa, a shrine that became the focus of their national yearnings. […]

Question: what is it about governments, big business, institutions, non–profits, charities etc that they want to keep the poor, poor? Alright, as generalisations go, this one is one of my better ones. Two articles that made me think this appeared in the media today. The first one was in the Independent and discussed the farming […]

Before going to see Sitting Man by James Cairns at the Wits Downstairs Theatre last night, I googled the title of the play to check it out. Because I know that the James Cairns I was looking for, is not the ‘Third child born to James Cairns and Elizabeth’, nor is he the dead guy […]

Is it only me, or does everyone else get the idea that Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni is adding up the right numbers but getting the wrong answer? Every time the inflation rate rises, he sticks it to the consumer, blaming our spending habits for putting a strain on the economy. His reasoning, that there […]

While tensions between Russia and Georgia, formerly part of the Soviet Union, continue to heighten, the world’s media is focused on an Austrian cellar and Mark Saunders the gunman who laid siege to Chelsea, England. Call me a prat (well a bigger prat than usual) but isn’t the reason why people want to read about […]

Is it only me, or does everyone else get the idea that Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni is adding up the right numbers but getting the wrong answer? Every time the inflation rate rises, he sticks it to the consumer, blaming our spending habits for putting a strain on the economy. His reasoning, that there […]

You know at times when you go through something, you tend to think that you are the only one going through it, until you talk to someone and discover that you are not. Having gone to what have come to be known as Model C schools, I have always felt as though I don’t quite […]

You now time and again, when I read about how kids find school unsafe, I wonder what in the hell is going on in this country. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but here goes. When I was back in school, such things would never happen. The worst that would happen would be […]

So I am supposed to feel guilty and unpatriotic that on April 27 –- Freedom Day -– I went to play golf. Maybe I should feel even more guilty that I played well in spite of my killer hangover from the binge at the tombstone unveiling the previous day. Clearly my guilt was not strong […]

In my last posting I ended by talking of the beneficial ‘enlightenment’ effects of a certain approach to scientific disciplines. There I used the term ‘enlightenment’ advisedly, and what I had in mind is its historico–philosophical meaning, especially in light of the so–called postmodern temperament of the present era. As everyone should know, the historical […]

On the 8th July 1991, as a 21-year-old intern at the Cape Times, I found myself, like most interns, in a strange place: a real newsroom, among strangers in a foreign town, Cape Town, far from my home in Johannesburg. It didn’t help that it had rained heavily that winter morning and in my walk […]

Dear Mr Zuma When you voiced your concern in a speech last week about escalating fuel prices, you can be sure that every single South African, with the exception perhaps of the current Cabinet incumbents and a few hardarses at Sasol, would have been more than willing to forgive you all your past indecretions including […]