Top marks to South Africa’s Chief Justice Pius Langa for coming in to bat for the independence of the media and the important role the judiciary can play in this regard. Last Sunday he said that the judiciary should “jealously protect” the media and their right to free expression, because both the media and the […]
News/Politics
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Zimbabwe, Kenya and Polokwane prove that press freedom is vital to Africa
As Mugabe’s thugs are once again unleashed upon the opposition and journalists in Zimbabwe, the roll of the media in safeguarding the citizens of a country is being highlighted — a roll that is particularly vital to the continent of Africa. The tyrant, who has just poked his head above ground, has decided to employ […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
The illusion of engagement: My chat with Downing Street
The first thing that popped up in my RSS reader on Tuesday morning was a post from Richard Sambrook who noted that the prime minister’s office in Britain had not only started to Twitter its press-release notices, but was also responding to questions. I decided to ask the question that is on everyone’s mind : […]
Posted inNews/Politics
ANCYL leadership contest: Shades of Polokwane?
Another page in the voting nasty annals of African politics is being written in the sacred halls of the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein — home of the brave and the land of the free – to pee in your soup. The ANC Youth League (ANCYL), established in April of 1944, is currently […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Do Zimbabwe’s election results vindicate SA’s quiet diplomacy?
This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: Do Zimbabwe’s election results vindicate SA’s quiet diplomacy?
Posted inMedia, News/Politics, Tech
Africa’s big blogging bang
New statistics show that the big bang of blogging activity that began in South Africa in 2007 has been echoed by the emergence of blogging as a high-profile phenomenon in the rest of Africa. The April-July tipping point in social media in South Africa, chronicled in this blog, also appeared to be the period during […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Obama, Clinton or McCain face a great depression but who’s talking about poverty?
The Independent newspaper (UK) headlined on Tuesday with “The great depression” in reference to what it claims is 28-million Americans’ reliance on food stamps to survive. This, it goes on to say, arises from the era of the credit crunch, which it suggests is “a sure sign the world’s richest country faces economic crisis”. Ironically, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
‘Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran’
Events recently have made John McCain’s boneheaded interpretation of the Beach Boys’ Barbara Ann seem far less inconsequential than he claimed it was, this time last year, while campaigning in South Carolina. His belligerence was, you may recall, prompted by a question from a war veteran on when he thought the US military might “send […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma to table cryonics proposal to get tougher on crime
In line with his repeated calls for South Africa to get tougher on crime, African National Congress president Jacob Zuma has confirmed that he will be putting forward proposals for the introduction of cryonics at the next party conference. Msholozi believes that this will achieve a balance between those seeking the death penalty and the […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Putting sex, glamour and wit back into world politics
Nicolas Sarkozy, regardless of his politics, looks like being a raver of a premier, notching up a divorce from one glamorous wife and a marriage to a supermodel in his first few months as president of France. It’s as if he’d planned it all along — get into power, marry the lovely Carla Bruni and […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Stop treating us like mushrooms
Submitted by David Drew The misinformation being spread by the government and Eskom is getting past the point where we can believe that it is well-meaning but somewhat misguided. The more I hear, the more I believe that either we are suffering from a complete lack of common sense or we’re being treated like mushrooms […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mugabe: Beginning of the end
The will of the suffering masses versus the gritty determination of Robert Mugabe to stay in power — that, in a nutshell, is the contest taking place across Zimbabwe this weekend. This time the people’s yearning for freedom appears greater than any force, including Mugabe’s desperation. It must be so. Change is in the air. […]