The British media furore around South Africa’s extradition application for Shrien Dewani, accused of the contract killing of his young Swedish bride while on honeymoon in Cape Town, is at turns laughable and infuriating.
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
National Freedom Party headed straight for the scrapheap of SA politics
“The fact of the matter is we will never regain the relationship we had with the IFP leaders and it’s time for us to move forward ” — Victoria Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi, January 17 2011. If reports are to be believed, those words signalled an intention by the embittered and isolated, though massively popular, IFP national […]
Posted inEnvironment, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Population explosion!
Some time later this year, probably toward the end of October, the 7 billionth person will be born, and judging by birthrates, (s)he will most likely be Indian. The jump from 6 billion to 7 billion people on the planet will only have taken 12 years. The birth of this 7 billionth person raises important questions about […]
Posted inNews/Politics
How the IFP’s VZ tried to do a JZ
The court ruling was brief and brutal — dismissal with costs and the judge didn’t even bother to supply the reasons in the verbal version of the judgement as delivered in court on January 17 2011. Thus failed the national chairperson of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Victoria Zanele KaMagwaza-Msibi, in her bid to prevent South […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Another election, another Museveni term?
Recently, yours truly, returned to Uganda, after a 10-year absence. For some reason Uganda, like Kenya, feels just like home to me. In the streets of Kampala, just like in the streets of Nairobi, I see so many people who I could swear I have seen before. I have seen them in Soweto, Gugulethu, Kwamashu […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Pandora’s box
Tick the appropriate box. White or black or other? Xhosa or Tswana or other? Jewish or Hindu or other? African, European or other? Male, Female or other? In Nepal they recently added a third box for you to tick in the area of gender on their voting registration forms and it’s time to start wondering […]
Posted inNews/Politics
An open letter to Patrick Craven and Cosatu
Dear Mr Craven We are very different men, from very different generations, with very different views of the world. Nonetheless I respect both your opinion, and your contribution to the liberation struggle. But while I concede many of the points in your rather self-congratulatory letter to the ANC, I dispute many more. Not only are […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
The uncaring black middle class
It’s time middle-class blacks owned up to not loving their people and setting this nation up for failure. I cannot imagine how those who do not love their own people can serve this nation. Hard as I try, I find that there are very few instances where the middle-class blacks demonstrate a love for the […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Oh the identity question…
I am against everything Against war and those against War. Against whatever diminishes Th’individuals blind impulse Dambudzo Marechera, The Bar-Stool Edible Worm ——- The ever-lurking identity question, of which we are always aware, but not always attentive, has arisen once again. Indeed it is an entirely relevant one in the present political context demonstrated most […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The ‘I’ in ‘I write what I like’
For a number of months now I have followed rather avidly the News24.com site. Not because of the news stories themselves, but because of the comments that follow them. The site itself allows one to comment in almost complete anonymity; one can use various usernames that reflect neither social standing nor direct inclination. And it […]
Posted inNews/Politics
New beginnings
Now that a decade has ended, it is tempting to go back to the beginning. The beginning goes back to when the first president of the democratic South Africa, Nelson Mandela stepped down. It is not exactly the beginning but it is always useful to focus on some aspect of our history that has a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The problems with defining #African
By Jason van Niekerk Sentletse Diakanyo is not a journalist, and tells his readers not to unreasonably expect balanced articles. He’s not a scientist either, so apparently we shouldn’t unreasonably expect his cherry-picked wikiscience to accurately reflect human evolution. What he is, though, is a stirrer, and his Thought Leader post “We are not all […]