News/Politics

Friends, brothers, sisters, foreign nationals, national nationals, multi-nationals, my fellow South Africans; all protocol observed! It is with a double sense of worry and relief that I write to all of you. On the sixth day of the first month of the two thousandth and tenth year of our Lord, at about fourteen hundred hours, […]

The leader of the Christian Democratic Party, Reverend Theunis Botha, described President Jacob Zuma’s traditional wedding as a “giant step back into the dark ages”. I’m sorry Rev, I know I’m meant to revere you but the only thing from the dark ages in this case are your views on this matter (ducks lightning bolt). […]

By Franklin Cudjoe and Julian Harris Deadly new mutations of diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis threaten over half the world’s population, the World Health Organisation and the Gates Foundation warned recently. One major culprit is counterfeit and substandard drugs that can provoke mutations that resist real medicines. Crackdowns, however, do not address the cause. […]

Reverend Theunis Botha has taken President Jacob Zuma to task for ancestral worship practices which he suggests are a primary cause of Africa’s failure to advance beyond superstition and poverty rather than colonialism. The leader of the Christian Democratic Party described Zuma’s traditional wedding to his fifth wife, Thobeka Madiba, as a “giant step back […]

A match is lit in the darkness and the room suddenly glowers with three silent faces watching their gang leader light his cigar, then slowly exhale with relish. “So you have good news,” he mutters to his three right-hand men. “Akmal Shaikh has been released, on the grounds of mental disability.” The three men nod […]

The case of Brandon Huntley — in terms of the divergent reactions of South Africans to his attempts to get Canadian refugee status, not so much what he did — has become one emblem of the current South African collective consciousness and subconsciousness. That emblem is the denial of racism conflated with the accusation that […]

It is nearly the end of the year. And in a time honoured tradition spanning the last three hours, I have compiled my shit list. These are the things and the people I feel need to be flushed down the proverbial john. Those little flecks on the toilet bowl of humanity that have spoiled an […]

Nic Dawes fabulous article in the Mail & Guardian entitled Schabir’s gambit got me thinking that perhaps many of our readers don’t understand the chess terms being referred to in the discussions regarding President Jacob Zuma and Schabir Shaik. What many of you don’t know is that just hours after paying tribute to former health […]

My high school “piece job” entailed being an interpreter of maladies. It was my job was to find which tooth or teeth were loose, painful, rotten or all of the above at a dental surgery in Bree Street, Johannesburg. The resulting information would then be captured by yours truly on a piece of paper according […]

…and any other issue that may get you riled up. Because it is all irrelevant if we don’t have a planet to live on. Yup, that’s right, all our problems, all our high points, all our crimes, all our achievements will be for nothing if we don’t get an agreement on climate change. The summit […]

A year on, a lot has been written about Cope’s fortunes. Without wanting to sound like an oracle ensconced in some seat of better wisdom, I want to argue that at the heart of the deferred dream of an alternative government is the failure of visionary, pragmatic and organised leadership within Cope. This failure is […]