News/Politics

Dear Jeremy, I am deeply disappointed in the South African Communist Party and in you personally for supporting censorship in the form of a media tribunal. You have lost my respect as an intellectual and as a democrat. The occasion for my letter is your article in Umsebenzi Online. I would respond directly online, but […]

As the National Prosecuting Authority bask in the afterglow of having obtained a conviction against former top cop Jackie Selebi in Johannesburg on Wednesday, the time has come to put into perspective the price that was paid by South Africans in order to obtain it. As things stand the former police commissioner is facing 15 […]

Why oh why does this happen? Why is it that as a people and a country we have such difficulties in dealing with dissent? You would swear that if someone disagreed with your ideas it could result in you losing a limb. I remember in the not-so-long past that the media could not report on […]

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has appealed for calm when discussing the ANC’s proposed media tribunal and not go on the offensive. On the contrary we all should, whether we are in and of the news media or not, forcefully resist this attempt to curtail freedom of speech. Let’s be blunt. Whether it comes in the […]

Laugh out loud on Sunday Methinks the media tribunal is a good idea after all. For the first time after 16 years of democracy politicians will have a haven where they can run off to appeal against the media’s nosy ways. The public will also have a well deserved break from all the exposés on corruption […]

The only looming threat is how long an ANC that perceives itself to be the only legitimate political entity on these shores will tolerate the DA determinedly nibbling away at a vote that the ANC proclaims as its sole preserve.

African National Congress secretary-general Gwede Mantashe in a report in The Star newspaper on Friday called upon newspaper editors to join the debate on setting up a media tribunal rather than act defensively. Mantashe said the invitation is in order that the media engage in the debate constructively and exchange ideas rather than defend its […]

By Jackie Mapiloko During school holidays my parents would ship me to a relative’s house in Evaton, a tiny settlement in the Vaal Triangle. My ageing relative was landlord to about 20 families who lived in shacks in a yard, which she had inherited from her mother. As the landlord, or ”ma-stand” as she was […]

The hypocrisy of the West that is what — particularly the type exhibited by the US. The leaked slew of military documents on the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks this week, was another stark reminder of the two-faced nature of Americans, who it seems, have become quite adept at the practice of preaching one thing and doing […]

The African National Congress Youth League in the Eastern Cape confirmed yesterday that it would be convening a congress in the province despite there being an interdict prohibiting it from doing so. The youth league in the Eastern Cape previously disbanded its provincial executive committee resulting in a court order which interdicted it from holding […]

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Brett Kebble murder trial in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg is the fact that the accused, Glenn Agliotti, has not been charged with fraud relating to what appears to be a defence of assisted suicide. The evidence given by Agliotti in the corruption trial of […]