News/Politics

Two highly respected analysts have now asked roughly the same question in quick succession. Justice Malala in The Times and Professor Sipho Seepe in an article found in the Jewish Report (page 3 “Seepe sees short lifespan for Cope”) are querying whether there is any substance to Cope or is it really just a manifestation […]

Recent events in Zimbabwe have reminded me of the 2000 Taylor Hackford film Proof of Life. The basic plot has a contractor kidnapped by rebels in a fictional Latin American setting. A negotiator is tasked with ensuring the contractor’s release. During the protracted negotiations, one of the things that the negotiator demands, before any payment […]

Being the feckless fool that I am — unworthy of DA membership, unfit for ANC branch duty, unwelcome at ID Tupperware parties, uninvited to IFP cultural gatherings, too heathen for ACDP communions, and all but shunned by MF breyani jols — it gave me some cold comfort late last year when a horde of ANC […]

This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: What lessons can be learned from the Carl Niehaus affair?

Advocate Vusi Pikoli was suspended from office as the National Director of Public Prosecutions by former president Thabo Mbeki on 23rd September 2007. Following this, on 28 September 2007, an inquiry, chaired by Dr F Ginwala was established in terms of section 12(6)(a) of the National Prosecuting Authority Act No 32 of 1998 (the Act), […]

We have turned east, where the sun rises, and given our back to the west, where the sun sets — Robert Mugabe The whole morning I marvelled at the apple-red faces of the 12-year-old Chinese children I teach at a new school I started work at yesterday. The ice-breaker game to introduce myself on my […]

I can’t help feeling sorry for Carl Niehaus. Not that anything can excuse the man’s behaviour, but you have to understand where he’s coming from. Niehaus spent his early adulthood in jail for his anti-apartheid convictions while the rest of us were getting started in life, accumulating wealth, property and building our careers. When he […]

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai now contends that the world should get over President Robert Mugabe. If his recent comments on the matter are to be believed, it confirms that Zimbabwe’s many problems are likely to endure long after Mugabe is gone. Reading between the lines, one gets the sense that Mugabe’s rule has produced […]

The ANC’s confirmation that spokesperson Carl Niehaus will not be abandoned despite the revelations made in this weeks Mail & Guardian is, in my humble opinion, highly commendable. Instead of taking the path expedient and getting rid of him they have opted to recognise a lifelong contribution and face the invariable slings and arrows that […]

Like most people in Australia, and many around the world, I’ve been following the reports of the terrible fires that ravaged the state of Victoria on “Black Saturday”. I’ve watched with horror as, night after night, news reports show more awful footage of the devastation. There are burnt out hulks of cars in the road, […]