News/Politics

Recent utterances from Cope Youth Movement (CopeYM) leaders on a potential strategic cooperation with other opposition parties stand as a testament to a total lack of political education and complete ignorance about political strategy. Such unfortunate and lamentable actions will not only harm the prospects and interests of the broader organisation in the long run, […]

By now most of us have heard about Chumani Maxwele and his inability to keep that middle finger down. He was arrested and allegedly held for 24 hours because of swearing and making “rude” gestures at the presidential cavalcade last week. Basically he’s been arrested for something that many people want to do, talk about […]

Chumani Maxwele, a student from UCT, was arrested, his house searched and then interrogated about his political affiliations after purportedly making an obscene gesture at President Jacob Zuma’s convoy of vehicles while out jogging. According to the Sowetan, Maxwele was arrested for “waving on” Zuma’s convoy when he was jogging on De Waal Drive, Cape […]

In part 1 of this blog post, I discussed the State of the Nation address, delivered rather badly last Thursday by the president. I mentioned how the problem of crime had gone almost completely unmentioned by the Comrade Leader’s speech. Thankfully, I’m not the only one to decry the lack of crime prevention strategy in […]

By Michael Baillie “Zuma’s conduct is un-African”. Not my words, but those of an “expert” as quoted in a news article I read recently. But what on earth does it mean? On face value it could mean that Zuma’s actions were not African in nature, that in someway they were not representative of what it […]

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille is treading a very fine line in claiming that Western Cape Community Safety MEC Lennit Max’s alleged extra-marital affair is a private matter and that until allegations of sexual harassment have been proved against him no action can be taken. In terms of her statement of February 5 2010 Zille […]

Lofty ideals. Fanciful notions. Good intent. That is the problem with our government. You see it in the legislature where good intentions pass the Consumer Protection Act which, though intending to protect the hapless consumer, will mostly result in more expensive goods and services. You see it in the judiciary, where lofty ideals abolish the […]

I know nothing about pubs and bars, except of course what Hollywood has taught me. This means that my idea of bars save a couple of visits with friends is really imprinted with the image of depressed sods having reconciliatory drinks before going home to the government, the all-knowing-gun-toting-barman and the college dropout barmaid serving […]

The General Council of the Bar of SA has confirmed that the justice ministry will soon be responding to the complaint of appointing Mokotedi Mpshe, deputy director of the National Prosecuting Authority, as an acting judge in the North West High Court. The problem with that, is that there is nothing that Justice Minister Jeff […]

Righteous public wrath can be a laudable thing, particularly when it is harnessed to compel political accountability by government. A pity, then, that it is being squandered to force President Jacob Zuma to stop screwing around, rather than to force him to stop screwing up. The past fortnight has seen a tsunami of outrage and […]

If the state is judging the state of the nation, then it’s up to the nation to judge the state of the state The shower head is back: and this time it’s super-sized. I’ll be interested to see its proportions and position after yesterday’s State of the Nation Address. Last night President Zuma was in […]