By Lwando Scott The women’s struggle is often talked about as something only women should be involved in. This is wrong, it’s a struggle for us all, and yes that includes gay men. There’s often a silence on the part of gay men when it comes to women’s rights. This is unfortunate because the sexual […]
News/Politics
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
ANCYL has no copyright on economic freedom
The struggle for economic freedom predates us all. It began many years ago. Long before the ANC or the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) ever existed, and even long before the arrival of the employees of the Dutch East India Company at the Cape in 1652. When Nguni tribes, moved south of the African continent in […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Olympic opening: More Little Britain than Great Britain
Glorious traditions, like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder. When some chinless member of the British aristocracy was expounding on the ‘glorious traditions’ of the Royal Navy, the riposte – often incorrectly attributed to Winston Churchill, once First Lord of the Admiralty – was, ‘What glorious traditions? The traditions of the Royal Navy […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mandela has nothing to apologise for
By Gugu Ndima It’s quite intriguing that the stature of former president Nelson Mandela has been questioned. His integrity and commitment to his people is being cross-examined. Insinuations have been propagated that the former president sold out for self-centred motives and instantaneous fulfilment. As a member of the ANC, and disciplined member of the ANCYL, […]
Posted inNews/Politics, Sport
Caster, Oscar, Hashim — their victories, our hope
By Greg Nott This past week has been filled with extraordinary and historical sporting moments that are so inspirational they’re almost too good to be true. They hold a key for our political future; if we’ll appreciate the significance of the events. When I first met Caster Semenya, it was August 2009. She had just […]
Posted inNews/Politics
An opening ceremony as confused as the British psyche
“We know we’re great, we’re just not sure why.” For me those words sum up a generally strange, occasionally spectacular Olympic opening ceremony in London on Friday. I guess the starting point for opening ceremonies is the desire to be bigger and deliver more prolonged thrills than the previous guy. And if good sex is […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Africa on track for millennium goals
The African continent’s progress in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 has gathered pace and credibility over the past few years. Africa continues to make incremental progress on the majority of the eight development goals aimed at improving social and economic conditions in the world’s poorest countries, which all 193 UN member […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Auditor general’s hand grenade fizzles and splutters
Auditor general Terence Nombembe has lobbed his annual hand grenade into the laps of the politicians, the local government audit report. As always, it is packed with explosive material. Sadly, however, the incendiary fizzles and splutters but never explodes. While the collapse of local government annually excites ritualistic consternation and lamentation, nothing much is done […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Is this finally Malawi’s Lazarus moment?
It was Eric Arthur Blair who once remarked; “At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.” Well, Malawi turned 48 on July 6 and for a country that has taken so much battering pre and post-independence perhaps it, too, has the face it deserves at that age. Yet, for just more than 100 days now […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Who sucks? Our municipalities!
If I were doing Auditor-General Terence Nombembe’s job I would be very angry and demoralised about dishing out the same warnings to local governments over the dismal performance of their municipalities every year. This week was another of those when Nombembe told us how financial management had degenerated over the past three years and irregular […]
Posted inNews/Politics
On ANC discipline
By Justice Phatse Piitso On the occasion of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the triumph of the Cuban revolution, the leader of the Communist Party of Cuba, General Raul Castro, conveyed the following profound words to his people: “Never let the enemy siren songs make you go soft. Always be aware that the enemy, by […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How networking is transforming politics
The study of networks and its widening influence on international relations and global governance has grown incrementally over the past two decades. This as a result, out of an area of research that began, somewhat sceptically, to critically engage the ever evolving concept of the “state” within a 21st century context. Although defined differently depending […]