By now much has been written about the tragic tale of Oscar Pistorius. I don’t feel that I can contribute directly to this debate. Until such time as the courts have done their work, we must all reserve judgement. I will say though that I feel that not one but two young people have lost […]
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
Catholicism’s CEO falls upon his staff
These are tough days for Christianity Inc. The product is stale, traditional markets are shrinking, and employee criminality has brought police attention. No surprise then that the CEOs are bailing out. Last year it was head of one of its minor subsidiaries, the Church of England, who unexpectedly threw in the towel. This week was […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The realities of social mobility in South Africa
South Africa – the African continent’s largest economy and its only G-20 member – continues to display strikingly high and persistent inequality which has led to high levels of marginalisation for an upper middle-income country. The stark and at times obscene contradictions between rich and poor – a legacy of our country’s apartheid past – […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Oscar Pistorius, our flawed hero, has fallen
By Justice Malala For us South Africans, and for many across the globe, it is impossible to watch Oscar Pistorius run without a stir of emotion, without wanting to break down and cry and shout with joy. Pistorius is no ordinary hero: he is that rare thing, a man with an almost-impossible narrative. It is […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The cult of the African National Congress
I recently came across George Orwell’s 1984. Orwell is known for his insight into the behaviour of revolutionary governments. What I found in the book had me gasping for air. 1984 is set in a post-revolution world divided into three regions: Oceania, Eastacia and Eurasia. Winston, the protagonist, is based in Oceania. Oceania is ruled […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Rape, let’s end it
By Miranda Pyne Anene Booysen’s gruesome murder last week caused many of us to speculate about revenge. Yet again we sombrely witnessed another violation. Another woman’s life wasted. People online, and on the radio, called for castration, the death sentence, sentencing the murderers to life in the worst prison possible, in some overcrowded hellish place […]
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Oscar: A South African tragedy
I first knew about it after seeing this tweet: That’s how it usually happens, now, with news stories. I felt ill. Like I’d been kicked in the gut. Partly because of the shock of it. Oscar Pistorius, of all people! Because an innocent person died, because it was an accident, because nobody should ever have […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Bribing politicians to honour gay rights
In November 2012, Malawi’s first female president, Joyce Banda, temporarily suspended anti-gay laws, urging debate. Instead of acknowledging these laws as inhumane, reports suggest that Malawi feared losing money from liberal Western donors who insist that sexual minorities be protected. Gay rights are in vogue for Western funders, the European Union has already given 1.8 million […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Activists do make a difference, Haffajee
There’s an old philosophical riddle that goes like this: If a tree falls in the forest and no-one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound? Updated for a contemporary 21st century South Africa reeling from the rape-murder of Anene Booysen it might read like this: Does work exist if Ferial Haffajee […]
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From Slut Walk to One Billion Rising: Losing the protest plot
Following her wildly popular Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler, the American feminist playwright and activist, has a new campaign, a new activism, a new brand. One Billion Rising. The concept is simple. Motivated by the popular consensus, that one woman in three worldwide — that is one billion — experiences some form of violence in her […]
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Zimbabwe, it’s complicated
This month marks two key milestones in Zimbabwe, a country that for over one and a half decades has attracted significant attention to itself because of an ailing economy, limitations on civil liberties and political rights and what has been described as the ”mass exodus” of its people to other countries the world over. One, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Bringing out the big Gundelfingers
”Why does divorce have to be messy?” someone asked on Twitter. Today’s trending topic is, of course, the Sexwale divorce. Anything is messy if it involves lawyers, anger and, of course, money. A lot of money. (A R70 million house! R150 000 a month maintenance! I hope at least that the R1 million car demand is in […]