News/Politics

INEVITABLY, the decision by the ANC’s national executive committee to recall former president Thabo Mbeki was always going to be controversial. But perhaps, depending on which school of thought you come from, it has exposed some deep-seated fault lines in our body politic that will help the country as it continues molding a new society […]

Following the first phase of the Russian Revolution, Josef Stalin (1878-1953) engaged in a systematic propaganda campaign for the consolidation of power and assertion of authority, as well as establishing a heroic image of himself through expression of most dissolute flattery and unquestioning praise. Stalin was presented to the unsuspecting masses as “man of the […]

I can just imagine those Capetonians when the USS Theodore Roosevelt, a massive aircraft carrier, docks in Table Bay on Friday. “Like shwow bru, I’m so happy with that shit I scored in Sea Point last night hey! It’s amazing; this morning when I woke up it looked like the mountain was in the bay […]

This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: Shilowa resignation: Is there enough space for divergent views in the ANC?

I start with a rather reactionary title that will not make many people happy as they fought against Apartheid or knew people that died during the anti-Apartheid struggle. My point is not that Apartheid should have been allowed to continue, but that the violent means to combat Apartheid was sure folly. Apartheid was an evil […]

The ANC are adamant that the Scorpions have to be incorporated into the SAPS as a brand new unit, which will be headed by a deputy national police commissioner and report to the minister of safety and security. In addition they will not be allowed any independent criminal intelligence capability just to make absolutely sure […]

I was amazed to learn that Mbhazima Shilowa has resigned his position as premier of Gauteng province. He has done so without prior consultation with the organisation that had put him there, in the first place. In fact, he has decided to quit the plum job because he does not like how former President Thabo […]

Seeing as though we are renaming everything from hospitals to streets after greats from the past, the time has come for car manufacturers to be brought into line as well. Henceforth models will have to be named after current political giants and include features which are a tribute to the characters after whom they are […]

Sicily, an autonomous region of Italy, is most infamous for organised crime and corruption. Lawlessness is the order of ordinary life. The criminal justice system is dysfunctional and as a result serious misdemeanors go unpunished. As the saying goes, “where there is no law, there is no sin”. In Sicily, bands of organised criminals have […]