No plan to fix the power catastrophe in South Africa will work overnight. The crisis is deep and wide and will have grave impacts on economic growth, inflation, and poverty alleviation for many years to come.
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
Would you encourage your child to recite the proposed pupils’ pledge?
This week’s Talkback question on the Mail & Guardian Online: Would you encourage your child to recite the proposed pupils’ pledge?
Posted inNews/Politics
Scorpions and now organised crime? Why not just legalise corruption?
I have worked on many cases involving the Scorpions and the organised crime unit over the years. While both have their flaws — who doesn’t? — they are nonetheless our knights in shining armour and, without a doubt, our spearhead in the fight against major crime. They comprise highly trained and courageous professionals who are […]
Posted inNews/Politics
This ‘business unusual’ government
On February 8 2008, the president of the Republic of South Africa, the Most Honourable Thabo M Mbeki, delivered his annual State of the Nation address to a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament. The thrust of the address was the new government theme, “business unusual”. In line with this theme, the Cabinet […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Behind the scenes at the African Union summit
Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese President, was standing just a metre away from me. I thought of asking him if I could have a picture taken with him. I wanted to show the photo to my neighbours in Khartoum. But then I thought about my friend Huda who had just quit her job with the Sudanese […]
Posted inNews/Politics
What new government?
In 1999, the New National Party (remember them?) and the Democratic Party decided to form a coalition in the Western Cape, simply to keep the ANC (which had received the most votes, just not with an outright majority) from governing the province. The following year, they fought the local government elections under the banner of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
I agree with the MP
I must say that when I first heard about parliamentarian George Lekgetho’s request — or was that suggestion — to legalise prostitution, I was quite impressed, contrary to everyone else’s reaction. I was happy that someone had finally spoken up about this matter. What I find interesting is how many people have since attacked or […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
The Gaia death cult
It’s unnerving how often one is faced with declarations about the desirability of fewer people on Earth, in response to criticisms of environmentalist politicking. Fewer of us, so the reasoning goes, would improve quality of life and be good for the environment. Forgive me for not joining this little death cult. Forty years ago almost […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Why is the ANC looking at a media tribunal?
ANC leaders charged with overseeing a probe into a tribunal for the media defended the initiative under interrogation by the country’s editors yesterday. The Jacob Zuma-led ANC confirmed at December’s Polokwane conference a decision by the then Mbeki-dominated organisation last July to investigate whether the current system of press self-regulation should be replaced by a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Sharia law an antidote to modernity or legislating misogyny?
When the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, opened this can of worms, he must have cut his hand on the tin. His suggestion that sharia law might have a place within British law has left a gash in his support base so wide that it will need umpteen stitches just to stop the bleeding. […]
Posted inNews/Politics, Tech
Bullies-R-Us
The armed forces always believed that subordination of the troops to the command was essential. If there were strictly enforced rules of behaviour maintained, then the soldier next to you would be able to rely on you performing according to drill during the times when the battle made everything else unpredictable. At what stage does […]
Posted inLifestyle, News/Politics
Satirists in desperate bid to keep Republicans in power
The US Republican Party isn’t just being kept in power by the military industrial complex, it’s being kept in power by satirists — what would they do without Bush, Huckabee or McCain? Last week Mitt Romney withdrew from the Republican race to replace George Bush as US President. Romney, who has a way of tightening […]