While reading Stephen Grootes’ article, “The politics of navigating the English Language”, I became increasingly annoyed. In a country with 11 official languages why are we overly concerned with how well people speak English? Grootes’ article looks at prominent political leaders and how they fair when presenting themselves in English. The unintended consequence of writing […]
News/Politics
Posted inNews/Politics
Charlie Hebdo, laughter, dogma and ‘truth’
The recent “terrorist” attacks at the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, in Paris, France, is a stark reminder of something that the Italian semiotician, philosopher, novelist and universal scholar Umberto Eco thematised in his first novel, The Name of the Rose (1998), namely, the supposedly negative, mutually exclusive relationship between what is taken to be absolute, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
It’s always song and dance time in the ANC
South Africans are big on celebrations, the makietie ever more lavish even as the ostensible reason for it diminishes. So it is unsurprising that one of the biggest annual bashes is that of the governing party feting nothing more remarkable than its own continued existence. The African National Congress centenary a few years ago cost […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Charlie Hebdo: How to talk about terrorism
Terrorism always shines a light on the human condition. The aftermath of an attack is often coloured with blame, apologies, and almost mind-numbing debate about the problem. More importantly: the aftermath can also shine a light on those who are interested in democracy and the political sphere, while simultaneously unmasking those who do not care […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The ANC has a leadership problem
Despite its parliamentary majority, 2014 was a year of reckoning for the ANC. Seemingly no longer in command of Parliament or public opinion, it emerged from the election bruised but not defeated. However, its performance lacks the swaggering bravado we have come to expect – it knows it has been wounded. Whether it can staunch […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Teacher, don’t leave those kids alone
I watched the basic education minister, Angie Motshekga, deliver the matric results on eNews yesterday afternoon. It was not pretty. Neither were the results impressive. And the minister’s speech was awful. There were times when she lost me completely, most of all when it came to the actual provincial results. Or was that the district […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
A New Year’s epistle to whiteness
Dear white people, There is no kind way to put this so gird your loins and swallow hard. All whites are racist. Some may not practice racism and many may be anti-racist. Others may mistakenly believe that we live in a non-racist epoch. Some may be left wing and others may be moderate or right […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Take drugs? Don’t help the piranhas
I’ve never taken drugs. Well, not the illegal kind anyway. I prefer to walk up to the counter at the pharmacy, recite my request and wait mournfully to be told that Discovery isn’t paying. As a kid in primary school, I regularly took overdoses of my asthma pills (Microfillin; active ingredient theophylline) in order to […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
Sony cashing in on Kim Jong-un
This is a movie producer’s wildest dream. Make it look like you pissed off one of the most popular “love-to-hate” dictators in the world because you did a comic movie about having him assassinated by two United States late night talk show clowns. Have it leaked that his country, North Korea, hacked into the Sony […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
No Christmas box for my fellow countrymen
I was out doing my irregular early morning jog when I was stopped by a lean and hungry-looking man. My street-wise eyes screened him up and down as he walked in my opposite direction. The distance between us closed and in no time we were face to face. What I picked up was the shabby […]
Posted inNews/Politics
2014: The SAS Zuma adrift in choppy waters
The year’s close is traditionally a time for introspection. It is not only an opportunity to dwell nostalgically on what was good, but also to identify patterns that if extrapolated give plausible shape to our future. South Africa’s first year without Nelson Mandela around has been a rudderless one. And since Madiba was absent from […]
Posted inNews/Politics
10 signs that SA democracy is toast
In case you’ve missed it in the midst of media frenzies about puppets in court, murder trials dismissed, or beauty competitions won, South Africa’s democracy is in trouble. Here are 10 reasons why our constitutionally enshrined democratic rights are under threat: 1. Threats of establishing a media appeals tribunal Not so long ago, the ruling […]