The sad discovery of a dead baby in a school bag should bring it home to all of us how scared young women are to talk about sex, sexuality and pregnancy. And perhaps it also shows how poor our tactics of talking to them have been. The Oprah school saga is only one fragment of […]
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
We have become cowards
Something in the character of South Africans is dying. Something in many of us has died and it is called courage. We have become cowards. I guess I should be speaking for myself since I have no mandate to speak for everybody, whoever that is but I insist on using the royal “we” and I […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
No show from ANC
By Glenda Daniels Guess what? The ANC has not shown up for any of the Press Council review public hearings held so far this month. And yet, it is the ANC, more than any other organisation in the country, which is unhappy about the independent and critical South African press. Last year there was heated […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Christians, gays equally hypocritical
By Cynthia Ayeza Mutabaazi A gay activist was recently murdered in Uganda, my home country. A bit of hell broke loose in the international community and two weeks or so later, life goes on. This is our sad reality. I highly doubt that he was murdered because he was gay. But I do not have […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The United States of Africa: A dream reborn
The eventual ousting of Moammar Gadaffi, counter-intuitively, has the potential to bring the African continent one step closer to the tyrannical despot’s long pursued pet project of a United States of Africa. In stark contrast to the personal monopoly over power illegitimately accrued by Gadaffi and his cohort of African heads of government, a federation […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Budget speech: Will govt back its promises?
By Jan Hofmeyr Since it assumed office, the Zuma administration has been frequently faulted for not being able to forge a coherent vision for this country. Arguably the president’s recent State of the Nation address has been perceived by some to not alter this view. Workmanlike it was, and touching on the right issues it […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Why a free news media is essential to economic prosperity
Musician Frank Zappa famously remarked that communism collapsed because people want stuff. That is an oversimplification, clearly, because a closer look at the history of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe shows that each country was different. Moreover, the desire for democracy rather than simply material well-being should also be considered. Yet there is […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Lara Logan and life on the frontline
By Robyn Burger The battery and sexual assault of Lara Logan, SA-born CBS News correspondent, while reporting on events in Tahrir Square, Cairo, illustrates the risks taken by those who bring us reportage from the frontline. While violence is not unusual in such situations, as a “sideshow” to the main event of the revolution in […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why a revolution in Zimbabwe is destined to fail
Can the Egypt/Tunisia revolutionary model work in Zimbabwe? Many of us Zimbabweans who have watched over the years with impotent anger and often hapless bombast as the Zanu-led thug regime has desecrated every democratic ideal in its war against its own people have repeatedly asked ourselves this question. The comparisons between Zimbabwe and Egypt are […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Dewani remarks by Cele, Simelane inappropriate
South African Justice Minister Jeff Radebe was correct when he pointed out during his media briefing that the South African criminal justice system and Constitution would ensure that Shrien Dewani need have no concern about his right to a fair trial. This must not however detract from the fact that Police Chief General Bheki Cele […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Harm of a special kind
The worst evil in the world is not committed by the tyrant, the bigot or the thief; the gravest evil is that performed by those we should be able to trust, a person whose very title demands respect: daddy, mommy, priest, lover, teacher, boss, political leader, spouse. Hospital wards and institutions are filled with far […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Dewani case: Torture claims misleading
The reports making headlines, both in South Africa and the United Kingdom, regarding the impact of the torture claims by two of the accused in the murder of Anni Dewani are misleading. Quite frankly, in Great Britain, South Africa, Europe and the rest of the world, police are frequently accused of torturing suspects into making […]