Imagine yourself as a youth in the June 1976 Soweto riots. You are young and you have dreams; selfish dreams about yourself as a free man (or woman) and a full citizen of a free nation. Desperation, pain and death surround you. You realise that you have only two options: freedom or death. Death, in […]
News/Politics
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Guptagate, a scientist’s point of view
In the past few weeks of politics in our country, it transpired that politics can be a dirty playground meant not for the fainthearted. Since the dramatic saga hit the news, and still receiving immense attention in popular media, some friends perhaps sensing that I am “mum” about the issue have asked what my reflections […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Al-Qaeda training camp a disaster
The media and certain political parties appear to be up in arms over the so-called failure of the Hawks, crime intelligence and the State Security Agency (SSA) to report on their alleged monitoring of an al-Qaeda training camp in South Africa. This is a no-brainer. Our top police units and SSA work with police and […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Pandering to apartheid
The DA has recently launched a poster campaign entitled “Know Your DA”. It attempts, I think, to bring to light the “untold” role that some of their founding members played in the fight against apartheid. Typical of South African politics, supporters of opposition parties countered these claims with a series of spoof posters, intent on revealing […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The crown jewels are looking a tad tarnished
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, warned Shakespeare. And as it happens, 2013 is turning out to be a tough year for Europe’s kings and queens. Royalists argue that monarchism’s value lies in the seamless continuity that is provided by inherited office, whereas in other constitutional arrangements political leaders come and go. The […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Africa falling short on millennium goals
Despite Africa’s exponential economic growth and development over the past decade and additional support from the international donor community, progress and the realisation of achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been slow in progress. Greater gains have been made over the past 15 years, however Africa’s performance overall continues to lag on health […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why Guy Scott might hate South Africa
By Neil Achary Guy Scott, who is vice-president of Zambia and, incidentally, a white Zambian, has ruffled a few feathers by saying that he hates South Africa. In an interview with The Guardian, although he seemed to imply that he likes South Africans on an individual basis, he dislikes South Africa for the same reason […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Jacob who? Mandela takes refuge in the fog of age
For me, the iconic photograph of George W Bush was of the American president reading to a bunch of kindergarten kids. It was conceived as standard pre-election pap, a photo opportunity to show the caring side of the nation’s most powerful man. But as it happened the date was September 11, 2001 and the picture […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
It is all The Media’s fault
It is The Media’s fault for tarnishing South Africa’s image. If it was not for them the world’s wealthiest people would be investing all their trillions here. Even the local investors would invest in their own country. If it were not for the bloody media we would not know about any of this: What Safa […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Zille’s latest campaign – a desperate attempt for legitimacy
In the four general elections held in post-apartheid South Africa, the African National Congress obtained the lion’s share of the vote, always garnering more than 62%, and an even bigger slice of votes from black South Africans. The Democratic Alliance’s 2014 election campaign has already kicked off, with its characterisation of the ruling party a […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Guptagate : Guptas land without permission or fuel
Aakash Jahajgarhia (24) and his fiancée Vega Gupta (23) are set to tie the knot with a lavish wedding, over 4 days, at Sun City starting on May 2. Vega is the niece of the three powerful Gupta brothers who own, inter alia, the New Age newspaper and Sahara computers. Mazeltov to the couple, the […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
The flood caused by opening the Guptagate
It’s been three days since #Guptagate was the top trending topic in South Africa on Twitter and it does not seem like that’s going to change until the weekend. From recent observation, I’ve noted that South Africans are all too eager to jump on the bandwagon and add their two cents to any news story […]