News/Politics

Blogs and Twitter have become the hot new breaking ground for news stories, so remember that you read this here first: today, Spag Blog can reveal that there has been an imposter in our political midst for much of the past year and that all of us, from the ACDP all the way down to […]

The prodigal son has gone home. The re-defection of Mlungisi Hlongwane from Cope to the ANC should be an act of encouragement to others like him who never had any intention of working towards building Cope into a formidable political party but to serve their own sinister agendas. It is important to reiterate that Cope […]

Well, it wasn’t quite like blackballing Mother Teresa, but it came close. In the context of the free world, the Dalai Lama enjoys something approaching Gandhian status. He is a true icon of peace and of a people’s struggle to be free, with these two ideals, so unusually, being complementary, not contradictory. Perhaps the most […]

If Renton hadn’t been a smack junkie, he might have said instead … Choose communism, choose a skill and choose a trade. Choose a kolkhoz. Choose a flippin big factory. Choose washing your clothing with regulation soap. Choose not having cars, compact disc players, electrical tin openers or ribbed condoms. Choose DIY and wondering why […]

“Independent Democrat leader Patricia de Lille has confirmed that a Johannesburg rabbi from the northern suburbs will be submitted as their candidate to contest the Western Cape Premiership in the forthcoming elections. Rabbi Alexander Carlebach of the Chabad Synagogue, Lyndhurst, Johannesburg, confirmed that he was joining the party but would not comment on the issue […]

Paragraph 37 of the Supreme Court of Appeals judgement handed down by Judge Harms in the matter of the NDPP versus Jacob Zuma — an appeal against the decision by Judge Nicholson in Pietermaritzburg which occasioned ANC president Jacob Zuma’s charges being withdrawn — sets out the following: “[37] The court dealt at length with […]

The sacking of Vusi Pikoli, as head of the National Prosecuting Authority, ostensibly on the basis of his insensitivity to matters of national security will surely go down in history as one of the great ironies of South African politics. Pikoli, who in his capacity as head of prosecutions, went after leading elements in both […]

This week, London will go into lockdown for the G20. On Wednesday April 1, or what protesters are referring to as “Financial Fools’ Day”, anti-banker anarchists and greens are expected to descend on London’s financial districts to hang effigies of bankers and make clear their distaste for capitalism. In preparation, the Metropolitan Police are spending […]

If you tune into SABC 2 at 12h30 this Sunday you will catch the start of the second season of the morality debate/talk/game show Drawing the Line. The whole point of the show is to pose a question to find out where South Africans draw the morality/right-and-wrong line. This will be the case for the […]

Over the last week issues have been highlighted in the press regarding support for political parties by the non-profit sector, particularly public benefit organisations. Even the churches have entered the fray, with the obvious example being Rhema, which is classified as a public benefit organisation. According to the tax laws, it should not be supporting, […]

In the past few days Britain has mourned the passing of Jade Goody aged 27 who was famous, quite frankly, for being famous. This bubbly lass, who owed most of her fame to a variety of Big Brother reality shows, primarily the one where she had a major fall out with Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, […]

The resignation of Christine Qunta from the board of the SABC is a moment to celebrate and savour for, in her sudden but welcome departure, justice, democracy and the interests of the country are well served. • Justice is served because, on her watch, we have seen the SABC become a place where corruption, malpractice […]