News/Politics

It has been interesting to see how the media have been pussy-footing around whether the killings in Skielik informal settlement in Swartruggens in North West province earlier this week were racially motivated. An 18-year-old white man, Johan Nel, has been arrested on charges of murdering three people in a shooting spree that has left many […]

Most good jokes can be carried off with just the punchline. Note the following: “No signora, ees not my feenger …” “I tried to stop swallowing, but it was all one piece!” “Declawed? I thought you said deboned?” “So the bear picked up the rabbit and wiped his ass with it.” “Perhapth I should rephwase […]

Is it only us, or do all changing societies not know when to cheer and when to worry? The latest example showing that South Africans often wring their hands at things we should cheer — and ignore problems we should wring our hands about — is the charges against Jackie Selebi and, before him, Jacob […]

Are you a top public servant or politician who occasionally receives wads of cash in excess of R5 000 in unmarked brown envelopes as payment for work done after hours? Do you sometimes prefer to do business in a gentleman’s club? Are any of your close friends renowned drug traffickers? Have you from time to time […]

I am happy that Jacob Zuma sang Umshini Wami at his inaugural speech as ANC president. I hope that he will do so again when he gives his first official address to his party’s followers on the occasion of the January 8 statement. We cannot blame the selective amnesia that prevails in this country — […]

“As far as South Africa is concerned, the greatest challenge will be to deepen a very fragile democracy and to uphold the rule of law. The assertion of new forms of lumpen-radicalism and the colonisation of both the state and the public sphere by anti-elitist and anti-intellectual forces will severely test South Africa’s capacity to […]

It was undeniably a bad week for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, but I would contend that it might have been an even worse week for President Thabo Mbeki. And that says a lot about the dire political straits in which our president finds himself. Of course, Selebi is in big trouble. Ironically it was […]

Dear God Sorry to bother you again, but you did such a splendid job with that Rainbow Nation miracle in the early 1990’s, we’d really appreciate it if you could glance our way again because things are looking decidedly dodgy. For starters, ANC members are fighting among themselves and it has got so nasty that […]