News/Politics

“Italy’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday threw out a law that shields Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from prosecution while in office, paving the way for corruption proceedings to resume against him.” This has thrown Italian politics into the kind of spin that might well be mirrored down here. Recently Helen Zille, leader of the Democratic Alliance, […]

At an el fresco lunch, on a warm summer’s day in Cape Town a few years back, I reminded Margaret Thatcher of when a former junior minister had vindictively described former Conservative leader Michael Howard as having “something of the night about him”. “That’s what makes us interesting as human beings dear” she replied with […]

Take a step back and answer these questions: How bad would the possible corruption have to be before you — as a prosecutor — gave a definite murder suspect and confirmed mass drug dealer indemnity? In other words in order to possibly obtain a conviction for corruption you need to give a possible murderer, huge […]

Former national police chief Jackie Selebi pleaded not guilty to all the charges read out against him in the High Court today and then promptly accused Bulelani Ngcuka and Vusi Pikoli of corruption in terms of his plea statement. Boundary lines have been clearly drawn, let battle commence. Well let it commence tomorrow with the […]

Africa has a new BFF. China. Across the continent everyone seems to be loving them. They have quickly become our superbro in the world of economics. A destination for our exports. And the supplier of all our needs from white tees to blue jeans to cheap guns. The new meme on the street seems to […]

Today President Jacob Zuma will, again, formally unveil his latest party trick: the presidential “hotline”. Our president, we know by now, has the magician’s knack of drawing the eye away from the trick. Should a fraction of his talent for getting himself out of trouble be deployed in some wider national purpose, South Africa would […]

By making a decision to introduce legislation, which will ban officials from doing business with the state, the DA proves that collectively they have no clue about eradicating corruption. Indeed, while yes, there are loopholes which allow for the state to be pillaged by people who have been entrusted with running the state, and yes, […]

Whoever came up with the idea of President Zuma’s hotline is either very crazy or very brilliant. There is an interesting story to be told on both sides of the reality of the consequences of this bold initiative. First of all it is an indictment that citizens in any well functioning country should have to […]

While US President Barack Obama and his advisers, along with Congress, are deliberating over their response to the request made by General McChrystal for additional troops to be sent to Afghanistan, things may well be overtaking them on the ground. Indeed their decision on whether to switch focus to Pakistan, give the general what he […]

I honestly don’t think I can stomach another indignant person imploring “the West” to “do something about Zimbabwe”. This gem is usually delivered on the back of some hack thesis about the hypocritical invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq to free them from dictatorships whilst leaving poor old Zimbabwe languishing under Mugabe. Next is generally the […]

President Zuma was interviewed on CNN yesterday and has been cited as criticising former president Mbeki’s standpoint on HIV and Aids. He said that Mbeki’s choices and actions were “not government policy”. The Times Online article argues that this was criticism of the previous regime, but to me it seems like simple defensiveness. So what […]

Early last year I complained that the DA’s image was too rich, too old, too white. I wrote, “Clearly brand DA is in need of a major overhaul, a major injection of cool. Its fusty look is rather reminiscent of what Woolworths was like 10 or 15 years ago when people under 30 refused to […]