News/Politics

Of course, Julius is not Adolf and Jacob Zuma is not German President Paul von Hindenburg, although tempting analogies could be drawn with Hindenburg’s fatal pliability at the hands of Hitler.

By Bjorn Stigson An important topic for discussion during my recent South Africa trip was the17th Conference of Parties (COP17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is being hosted in Durban this year. COP 17 is important in order to steer a course towards a sustainable world. But scepticism surrounds […]

British Judge Howard Riddle ruled last Wednesday that Bristol businessman Shrien Dewani, who is accused of murdering his wife Anni while on honeymoon in Cape Town during November 2010, can be extradited to South Africa to face charges of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and kidnapping. The decision is, however, not the final word on […]

By James Duminy The recent acts of insurrection, violence and looting in London have drawn typically shocked and patronising condemnation from all corners of the newspaper-reading classes. “Isn’t it just shocking that people can behave like this? What must their parents say?” A particularly pernicious discourse has emerged to describe these events — the vocabulary […]

Jacob Zuma was made to wait for three hours because the start of the ANCYL’s elective conference (Midrand, June 16 2011) was delayed by, among others, the late arrival of ANCYL president Julius Malema. Once the conference began, Zuma had to listen to Malema‘s wide-ranging, 90-minute speech — a speech that was not all that […]

Dear Reverend Tutu, I apologise for giving this blog entry such a corny name. I realised the phrase “Et tu” had been used at least twice before — once by some old Roman politician and once by Dr Bandula Kothalawala (not to mention the band by that name somewhere on YouTube). Be that as it […]

By Aragorn Eloff What is the crime of looting a corporate chain store next to the crime of owning one? — Luther Brecht The sheer volume of commentary from across the political spectrum has made it hard to keep up with — and even harder to know where to stand on — the widespread riots […]

Apparently, Bingu wa Mutharika is not the learned fellow we all thought he is. An economist by training, Malawi’s once highly esteemed president has shown himself to be anything but the bright spark we tend to ascribe to holders of PhD degrees in Development Economics. It is a dubious distinction, I am told. In any […]