Faced with an economy that has been in decline for more than a decade and given the slowing demand from our trading partners, the State of the Nation address should have pointed in an emphatic way, to a radical and fundamental policy shift in strategies that are aimed at economic regeneration and the way we […]
News/Politics
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Poo-pooing the Rhodes historical narrative
In two years, Cape Town has experienced two rather rude awakenings in the form of “poo protests” in normally sanitised areas meant to represent the best of the Western Cape’s development. The first protest, organised by the disenfranchised Ses’khona People’s Rights Movement, was meant to highlight the deplorable conditions of toilets in informal settlements and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mvoko mugging video: Racial divisions find life in the comment section
Vuyo Mvoko, an SABC contributing editor, was mugged last night. Did you hear about it? Perhaps you’ve seen the viral video that caught the offenders’ faces. It’s everywhere; on all major local news websites. Maybe, upon seeing it, you feel you have a sympathetic message to share, or maybe you’re just outraged at the frequency […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Dear Government, why must you fly business class?
Dear South African Government I have come to a few realisations. All of which are admittedly obvious, but still need to be mentioned. I think a point-form approach will put things across more succinctly. 1. We as the citizens of this country pay your salary. Yet the rules for the way we earn our money […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Kits, cats, sacks and wives, how many were flying SAA?
Forget about the cryptic Nostradamus if you want to descry the shape of the future in the utterances of the past. Look rather at an unknown medieval English riddler who with uncanny foresight predicted the excesses almost 400 years later of the South African government. The riddle is about a man with four wives on […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
South Africa in the age of austerity
While the battle against austerity in Europe has entered a decisive phase — with the election of the radical-left Syriza in Greece — the term is seldom heard with reference to South Africa. Despite this, and the global discrediting of austerity, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene’s recent budget can only be described as austere. Austerity refers […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Doctor who? You can’t fake leadership
Another week has passed and two more prominent South Africans have been accused of faking their academic credentials. This time, however, the ignominy is particularly cringe-worthy: our ambassador in Washington, Mninwa Mahlangu, and his counterpart in Tokyo, Mohau Pheko, have reportedly been caught out for doctoring their CVs. That they remain in their posts is […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The ANC gets an ‘F’ for fibbing. Must try harder
It’s an oldie but goldie. How can one tell when a politician is lying? Answer: When their lips are moving. It’s distressing not only that President Jacob Zuma’s administration is inept and corrupt. What is almost worse is the insultingly poor quality of the explanations proffered when things go wrong. After 21 years of assiduous […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics, Tech
Mum and the stolen iPhone – iRest my case
(Continued from here) What I know is this: on January 12 2015 my friend the Diplomat left his iPhone unattended for five minutes, someone nicked the phone and a week later the “new owner” replaced the phone’s cloud data with his own phone book. Whoever is now in the possession of the phone has a […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Time to say goodbye to police’s R5 assault rifles
A bold campaign has been launched by Gun Free South Africa and amandla.mobi calling on the minister of police, Nkosinathi Nhleko, and National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega to disarm the police’s crowd-control units of their deadly R5 rifles. The R5 assault rifle is based on the Israeli Galil, which was inspired by the AK-47. It […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mbete, a disaster as National Assembly speaker
So, it is all okay then? National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete has apologised for labelling her bête noire Julius Malema a ‘cockroach’. After all, to err is human, to forgive divine? No, it is not okay. If the farce that played out around President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) were to have […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Parliament isn’t broken – our political economy is
To make sense of the anarchical tendencies recently witnessed in Parliament, we should pay attention to two key voices that recently gave us unprecedented insight into the state of South Africa’s political economy. The first came from Reverend Frank Chikane, reflecting on his experiences during more than a decade of public service in the Presidency. […]