Over the weekend South African President Jacob Zuma confirmed that, while he was still the deputy president, there had been a plot to have him assassinated, which was only thwarted because his loyal bodyguards refused to become involved. Along the lines of Valkyrie without the knobkerrie. Yet by mid-morning Monday only News24 and iAfrica have […]
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
Blue-light buffoons: When frustrated drivers fight back
Google “blue light VIP” and click the “news” tab. Four stories top the list: 1. The DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard’s parliamentary question regarding Malema’s alleged use of a VIP blue-light convoy; 2. The trial of VIP protection officer Hlanganani Nxumalo, accused of causing an accident by shooting a gun at a motorist; 3. Testimony by […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Sweatshop sugar
When you pour a packet of South African-made sugar into your morning coffee, you can feel good about the fact that the workers who milled, refined, packed, and shipped it are paid relatively decent wages, enjoy basic benefits, and are protected against severe exploitation. In many respects, South African sugar is about as “ethical” as […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Credibility an issue if Mahlangu, Jub Jub deviate from versions
The failure of courts to adopt the correct approach to assessing the accused’s version of events when coming to a decision in a trial occurs far too often and, due to lack of funds or ignorance of the law, in many instances the party who has been convicted fails to take the matter further. The […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, News/Politics
#occupysouthafrica – for who and by who?
Last night I attended a planning meeting for #occupysandton the Johannesburg branch of the occupy movement that is spreading around the world. It began on Wall Street with a focus on the greed that has begun to characterise the economic order, and the inequality between the 99% and the 1%. They call themselves “a horizontally […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Nobel could not have come at a better time for Liberia
By Robtel Neajai Pailey Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and peace activist Leymah Gbowee, also from Liberia, became the second and third African women to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 7. Gbowee and Johnson Sirleaf have forever transformed the image of Liberia, from a pariah nation of warlords and gun-slinging, drug-induced prepubescent […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Terre’Blanche murder accused’s affidavit vital
Judge John Horn, who was hearing the murder trial of accused Chris Mahlangu and a minor in the Ventersdorp High Court in North West on Monday, has been asked to rule on the admissibility of the accused’s bail application to form part of the evidence at trial. The pair is charged with inter alia the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Confrontation surrounds the Jerusalem light rail
Jerusalem is the focal point of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its architecture is one of the most profound examples of Israel’s control over Palestinian sovereignty. Since the 1967 conquest of the eastern parts of the Jerusalem as well as the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, Israel has moved quickly to ensure its control […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mahlangu-Nkabinde downs the chalice and burps contentedly
Alas, like many things nowadays, poisoned chalices aren’t what they used to be. Once upon a time it used to be that the recipient of the alluringly bejewelled goblet would take one sip and drop dead. Nowadays, the partakers seem curiously invigorated — “Rattex, the drink that refreshes!” — if one is to deduce anything […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
The Dalai Lama saga: Episode 2
Concerning the small matter of the second failed attempt by the Dalai Lama to get a visa into South Africa in as many years, let us begin by giving the South African government the benefit of the doubt. Notice how I have carefully constructed the preceding sentence along the lines suggested and hinted at by […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Black middle-class, middle-child guilt
Black middle-class South Africans suffer from a wide spectrum of self-inflicted psychological ailments, which you need to be black and middle class to truly understand. Each generation suffers from its own variations of these — only black syndrome, first black syndrome, (my favourite) bad black syndrome, black guilt — often discussed with close confidants, far […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
Metro police would rather police women’s sexuality than men’s violence
According to their Facebook Page “V-Girls is a global movement of girl activists inspired by I Am an Emotional Creature” — Eve Ensler’s latest collection of monologues for and about girls. The aim of the book, and of the movement is to inspire girls to take agency over their lives, and to encourage them to […]