News/Politics

As South Africa reeled from the xenophobic violence that has rocked our country, one of the founders of the Black Consciousness Movement, mother to Steve Biko’s two children, Dr Mamphela Ramphele, made an impassioned plea. She reminded us that we are Africans, and as Africans need to remember where we have come from, who we are, and how our future is intimately connected to all who share this continent with us.

Last Friday, Pallo Jordan launched what is called a social cohesion campaign. The aim of this is to afford South Africans the chance to air their views on suggestions to change names of geographical places — in aide of creating a sense of belonging among citizenry across the country. This is a good step to […]

The signs are very clear: June 27 and its aftermath spell doom for Zimbabwe. Already weeks leading up to the run-off have been characterised by abductions, torture and murder. The violence is just unimaginable. As a matter of fact, what people saw in South Africa in the past couple of weeks is reminiscent of the […]

The two Congolese men that arrive on the church’s doorstep look shaken and defeated. They explain that their house in Samora Machel has been ransacked and burnt down; there is nowhere for them to go. Could they spend the night here, at the Claremont Methodist church? Unfortunately the church is full so, after a hot […]

With everyone running around dropping off letters to each other — President Mbeki to President Bush, Morgan Tsvangirai to Mbeki and the chairman of Benoni Brothels Inc to the government (Mrs Traps) — I slipped out without paying, apparently — I figured: Why not send one to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela? As the recipient of the most […]

Pat Buchanan correctly observed that “when loyalists defect and seek to profit from that defection, it is usually a sign of a failing presidency”. While I have to play fair and admit that I generally can’t stomach Buchanan’s views, his diagnosis is a fair measure and appropriate description of the position that Gordon Brown, the […]

Submitted by Patrick Madden “One may lie with the mouth, but with the accompanying grimace one nevertheless tells the truth.” — Nietzsche It seems the order of the day to accept that politicians, like lawyers, lie or obscure the truth as a matter of course. We hardly decry this any more. The sound of the […]

On 12 May 2008, at 2.28pm, an earthquake registering 8.0 on the Richter scale hit the Chinese province of Sichuan. The earthquake, believed by scientists to be 30 times as fierce as the one that hit Kobe in Japan in 1995, released the energy of five atomic bombs combined. More than 40 000 people are confirmed […]

During my boarding school days, when life in a church-run hostel serving a militarist government school was one of endless authoritarianism, we used to have a stock response to the ludicrous reasonings given for the ludicrous restrictions and punishments foisted upon us: “Do they think we’re thick?” Of course, we had no choice but to […]

No case illustrates better the pressing need for a fund specifically to compensate and assist victims of crime than that of nine township children, allegedly sexually abused by German immigrant Werner Braun. Braun fled the country via Namibia at the end of 2005 when police investigations got too hot for him, leaving behind a house […]