News/Politics

With ANC president Jacob Zuma confirming that the World Cup 2010 will go ahead despite the current energy crisis, I was delighted to read in the Sowetan that an ANC MP is proposing that sex workers be legalised. Please read the article; it’s short, but it’s a classic. For example, MP George Lekgetho told Parliament: […]

To pick up your son, or not to pick up your son — That is the question, Whether tis nobler in the mind to let him walk home by himself And get kidnapped or killed just by chance Or to take arms with you in your car And when you’re threatened, shoot them. Maybe you […]

Much focus has been placed on personalities in the efforts to understand the contestation between President Thabo Mbeki and ANC president Jacob Zuma. But this battle is primarily a contestation of ideas. On the one end is the hodgepodge of the Zuma motley crew, combining Cosatu’s social democratic capitalism and urban worker orientation; the ANC […]

This headline has been seen often over the past few days. Is it just me or is crime getting out of control? I decided to look at a few of the different newspapers over the past 24 hours and try to get a feel of what else is going on around here. Here is an […]

In any country in the world, the leader of the ruling party is seen as the most powerful politician in the world. Even where this person is not necessarily the head of state or the head of government, the influence such a person has over the president or prime minister makes him or her very […]

No one thought any worse of Californians when that US state plunged into a power crisis a few years back. Yet we South Africans are upset about both our current (or lack thereof!) situation and its effect on our image. The sentiment is that we’ve now been shown up as no different to the “rest […]

It was with no little anger that I read New Zealander John Minto’s open letter to President Thabo Mbeki. In it, he outlines his reasons for refusing to accept the OR Tambo Award on behalf of Halt All Racist Tours and the anti-apartheid movement of New Zealand — an honour given to non-South Africans in […]

Could the planned disbanding of the Scorpions successfully be challenged in the Constitutional Court? I was gently taken to task this morning by Paul Hoffman of the Centre for Constitutional Rights because I told the Mail & Guardian that I do not think there is a constitutional impediment to disbanding the Scorpions. It is clear […]

Post-Polokwane, our country has lost its standing. I realised this as ANC president Jacob Zuma fell backwards on his arse during his fourth wedding celebrations. He laughed good-naturedly, as he does, as his loincloth rose to reveal a set of legs toned by his dance routines. This view is reinforced by the corruption charges against […]