While Nelson Mandela clings precariously to life in a Pretoria hospital, the organisation he helped birth finds itself similarly in extremis. Mandela, however, would find it difficult to recognise in today’s African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) anything that would make him and his co-founders proud. For not only is the offspring an embarrassment to […]
News/Politics
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
White guilt? You have no idea
“I think I speak on behalf of all whites when I say we are just totally sick of all the race-baiting going on in South Africa.” So says Dan Roodt, who read my last Thought Leader post and was most unimpressed by this “latest sigh of white guilt”. So I thought I’d write about guilt. […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
When fact imitates fiction: The Snowden case
In the history of (especially moral) philosophy, a recurrent theme involves the tension between the affirmation of so-called “free will” on the part of humans, and its denial, or what is called (a variety of) “determinism”. Without going into too much detail, it seems to me safe to say that most philosophers have favoured free […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
When I was a spy – part two
As instructed, I kept my alter ego secret — in fact, few people today have any idea I was once a secret agent. Let alone what a bad spy I was. Six weeks after the hurly-burly of starting a new life in a new world, I was contacted at Jan Smuts House and two colleagues […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Nick Griffin, prejudice and Mandela’s greatest gift to us…
British National Party leader Nick Griffin reminds us it is not only in South Africa where public personalities revert to the most basic prejudices to advance their cause or please their followers. Labelling former president Nelson Mandela a “murderous terrorist” may be an extreme example, but those who like public recognition often revert to such […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Cape Town and the Obamas
The hullabaloo around the award of the Freedom of the City to the Obamas (now accepted) reminds me of that remarkable day in September 2006 when then senator Barack Obama addressed a packed meeting at the Centre for the Book, organised and hosted by the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and the US […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
It’s time for a global minimum wage
Last April, 1 127 workers were killed when Rana Plaza, a garment factory in Savar, Bangladesh, collapsed. To put this in perspective, that’s more than twice the number of Americans that have been killed in mass shootings since 1983. This unfathomable tragedy reached us around the world in the form of images troubling enough to make […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Selling Malema’s farm to a white person an insult to blacks
It is with absolute rage that I write this article. The news of the auctioning off of comrade Julius Malema’s farm signals more than just another chapter in the tragic story of the former president of the ANCYL’s political downfall. It signals a tragic legitimisation of a historical injustice against black people; an injustice that […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Let’s celebrate the good times
Not too long ago, the government launched the framework to celebrate the 20th anniversary of democracy and freedom at Freedom Park. The event was attended by a group of eminent citizens who not only embody the values enshrined in the Constitution but in their own work and life display unconditional love for the country. Sadly, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Know Your DA insults blacks
“For the past 30 years we fought against apartheid law tabled in parliament.” This, among others, is a tagline from the Democratic Alliance’s perfidious “Know Your DA” campaign. “Know Your DA” is the DA’s kick-starter campaign for 2014 general election. The campaign was launched in January by the DA Leader and Western Cape Premier Helen […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Denying it’s xenophobia isn’t helping
By David Cote The recent attacks against foreign nationals, particularly those operating shops in townships and informal settlements, have sent shivers down the spines of many in South Africa and across the continent. It has been five years since coordinated attacks exploded across the country and led to the deaths of 64 people and the […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Lack of basic services compromises women’s dignity
A trip into any of the hundreds of informal settlements in South Africa is a brutal reminder of the need to highlight issues such as the absence of basic services for women living in impoverished conditions. Women struggle against the diseases that flourish in areas that offer virtually no services. This clip is from the […]