News/Politics

Professor Pierre de Vos, who teaches constitutional law at the University of the Western Cape, gave his thoughts in his not-to-be-missed blog Constitutionally Speaking on submissions by Judge President John Hlophe’s lawyers. They suggested the treatment meted out to their client, as opposed to that of the judges of the Constitutional Court, was inconsistent. In […]

It doesn’t take much to figure out that starving to death is not quite the same as being shelled while sitting in bed reading a comic book, nor is it even remotely confusing as being randomly smashed with a sledgehammer while shopping at your local grocery. Clearly, starving to death could never be as wicked […]

This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: What is the state of our nation?

Submitted by Trevor Watkins Who is accountable for the mess South Africa is in today? Nobody! That’s our problem. We have very limited mechanisms for holding the incompetents and crooks accountable, so our problems continue and escalate. Our much-touted Constitution has let the people of South Africa down badly in the area of official accountability. […]

In 1892, Rudyard Kipling lamented the gulf of understanding between the British and the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent in his book Barrack-Room Ballads. He said: “Oh, East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.” Never before had I imagined myself to be of the same opinion as Julius Malema, […]

For an apology, at least one issued by a senior politician, it’s not half bad. None of the “misquoted” or “quoted out of context” nonsense we have become accustomed to being dished. Instead, in a carefully worded statement, Fatima Hajaig, the deputy minister of foreign affairs, has gone some way in undoing the damage caused […]

Anyone who has been monitoring the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) response, or more importantly lack thereof, to the Zimbabwean crisis over an extended period would probably be staggered by any proposal to form a union government for the continent. Yet newly appointed chairperson Moammar Gadaffi and African leaders, currently […]

What I find especially striking about Sentletse Diakanyo’s post of January 30 endorsing the myth of world Jewish power was the number of readers it attracted — at the time of writing fast approaching 9 000 (a record for Thought Leader?). Why has this grubby piece of crude conspiracy-theorising struck so responsive a chord? Maybe […]

Election fever is starting to grip the nation as it does round about this time, every 5 years. This is when that bunch of pretty uninspiring and overfed chair-breakers suddenly remember who made their obesity possible. As is the case around this time, there’s a lot of debate about who should be allowed to vote. […]