News/Politics

It is intriguing that in the debates surrounding the ongoing revolutions in the Arab world, commentators have by and large ignored one of the most controversial post-war works on revolution: Hannah Arendt’s On Revolution published in 1963. Arendt opens the book stating that wars and revolutions determined the physiognomy of the twentieth century and constituted […]

It’s, more often than not, a particular sort of person that says that kind of thing. I’m not referring to Jimmy Manyi’s comments about “coloureds” but to his use of the economic phrase “over-supply”. He could have been discoursing about barrels of oil, or bushels of wheat, or any other commodity but he was talking […]

In April 2009, shortly before the general elections, the then acting director of the NPA, Mokotedi Mpshe, and his deputy, Willie Hofmeyr, decided to enter a nolle prosequi in the pending criminal prosecution of Jacob Zuma, the president of the ANC. The DA then brought a lawsuit to review the legality of the dropping of […]

By Zuki Mqolomba The recently publicised video clips of Jimmy Manyi’s utterances on coloureds and Indians as the then director-general of labour and government official reveal much of the hidden prejudices and social attitudes that leverage racism and tribalism in South African corridors of power. In the televised clip titled “Jimmy Manyi on coloureds in […]

At the risk of generalising, I think big business in this country has neither love nor respect for people, especially those of African descent. It does not treat them with dignity or justice. In fact, the oppression and exploitation of the majority in this country is NOT committed by the ANC government but big business. […]

I proceed from my recent blog posting on Manuel’s open letter to Manyi Manyi is guilty as charged — no two ways about it. His statements about coloured people being over-concentrated in the Western Cape and his astounding rebuke for them to “stop this over-concentration” are truly shocking. It does not matter in what capacity […]

My biggest fear in entering the debate about Jimmy Manyi’s comments on coloured people is that I will be seen as a coloured person speaking about coloured issues. My fear is that, because of this, my views will not be taken seriously. Unfortunately, our post-apartheid society has become so racialised that we no longer look […]

It should be called the SA National Defunct Force. After all, it has soldiers that it cannot deploy, ships that it cannot sail, and aircraft that it cannot fly.

By Roger Diamond The crude oil price is currently hovering at about $100 a barrel, having been well below this mark for a good couple of years now since late 2008. The proximal (or direct) cause of the rather sudden jump in price is two things: an actual decrease in oil supply and a perceived […]

Let us not drop any titles. Let us not pretend that you are not a cabinet minister. Nor should we act as if Mr Jimmy Manyi is not a “director-general equivalent”. Shamefully, some of us did not partake in the “misery of exile”. Had we done so, we might not have returned from foreign lands […]

The South African Police Service has confirmed that it will be investigating an allegedly unauthorised raid by crime intelligence officials yesterday evening at the offices of the Public Protector in Pretoria. Police spokeperson McIntosh Polela told Sapa today: “We condemn the raid and we didn’t sanction it and we are launching an investigation to deal […]