Thought Leader

I said right at the outset, in “New political party in its first election outing“, that: And now we get to 2019, the election that will settle once and for all, whether the ANC actually has ten million votes of its own or not. I followed this up, in “It’s not all GOOD“, with: The…

Recently, a new method of braaing became fashionable in South Africa. It’s called the “MultiChoice Decoder and Satellite Dish Braai”. It’s more a roast, actually. This kind of braai did not appeal to me, to be honest. In the first place, I wasn’t sure how tasty it will be. I wouldn’t be able to chew…

By Rebecca Helman and Neziswa Titi In their interview with Elspeth Probyn, Vivienne Bozalek, Tamara Shefer and Ronelle Carolissen argue that “[s]hame has typically been understood as a negative emotion, a view which is prevalent in individualist, psychologising discourses about human experience”. Conversely Probyn argues that shame can be a generative force, one which is…

The prospect of living in a ‘world without electricity’ in South Africa has become a spectre that looms ever-larger by the day, as a mismanaged, looted-to-the-bone Eskom struggles to keep the ‘lights on’ — a misleading metaphor, insofar as it stands for the entire electricity-based economy of this country. In the era of fake news…

This Human Rights Day, I think it is appropriate to ask, “What is a free and fair election?”. Simply it means that each voter is freely able to choose the option of his or her own choice, and that each contestant is fairly able to compete for each voter’s consideration. So, on the surface, it…

I remember when you were born of me, Level-headed to avoid catastrophe, In service that couldn’t quite compete, Just playing the fool with possibility, Hoping now that we got some remedy, Lifting weight soar above the canopy; Made you grow made you rise above, Nobody’s fool ain’t nobody’s thug, Syndicates came left without any guns,…

Recently, I sat down with Roger Collins, Development Manager of NewBridge, in Durban, to find out about the challenges and opportunities that exist in the further and higher education establishment. (Q1) Roger, is the standard model of post-school education in crisis? The simple answer is No. The standard model works well for the purpose it…

I’ve just finished reading the Democratic Alliance’s document, “The Manifesto For Change”. It consists of three parts. The first itemises its economic solutions, the second details its social solutions and the third highlights its political solutions. The DA has been in opposition for a long time, and you can see this in the way that…

Beware of political parties promising you the world in their manifestos and campaign materials. Believe it or not politicians are quite flexible with both reality and the truth. With this in mind I started reading the Democratic Alliance’s manifesto for change. The first line on the website reads, “The Manifesto for Change is our contract…

Recently, at the start of 2019, I chose to come out of retirement, deconcentrate and redelegate, for the time being, my BLU ERA activities; and enroll for a higher education. Now what this might have meant, 10 years ago, was returning to the politics department at UKZN and trying to finish my BA in political…