Neuroscientists at Groote Schuur, Cape Town’s premier academic hospital, today admitted that they were baffled about how alleged author, singer and self-styled Afrikaner saviour Steve Hofmeyr had existed for more than 50 years without a brain. Hofmeyr was airlifted to the pioneering medical centre – the scene of the world’s first heart transplant – after […]
News/Politics
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Is the public protector an ‘enforcer’ or a ‘recommender’?
The public protector has dominated the news yet again this year, and I’m sure this has been the year with the most coverage in the public protector’s history. One thing that has been outstanding is the debate around the powers of the office of the public protector. The public protector falls under chapter nine institutions, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Batho pele, we need servants not rulers
For many outside his country, he remains nondescript. For the people of Uruguay — their president embodies the calling of being a true civil servant. Colloquially, he is known as the world’s poorest president. An assessment of his lifestyle may just confirm that to be true. He, however, disputes that he is poor. Rather, he […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Winnie Mandela and the misrecognition of black women
Mail & Guardian columnist Verashni Pillay in “Five times Winnie Mandela has let us down” writes that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s quest to reclaim the Mandela Qunu home “is another embarrassing incident to add to her growing list of failures”. Pillay says there’s “historical revisionism happening in some quarters of our nation these days that brands Nelson […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Apartheid, torture and the potential for forgiveness
By Dylan Wray George* is a history teacher. He used to be very high up in the apartheid security police in the Eastern Cape. Zolile* has always been a history teacher. As a young man, he was arrested attempting to flee South Africa to take up arms with Umkhonto weSizwe. George more than likely oversaw […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
The shameless violence of Chicky Lamba
A recent video circulating on social media called “Chicky Lamba” has caught the attention of the Indian South African community, and despite the appalling violence displayed, has become somewhat of a joke. It was first published on mybroadband, GunSite South Africa and Carforums before local comedian Riaad Moosa posted it on his Facebook page last […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, News/Politics
Two sides of a racist coin: White privilege and cadre deployment
The appointment of Lesetja Kganyago as governor of the South African Reserve Bank provides an excellent opportunity to examine both cadre deployment and white privilege. Race reductionists from both side of the racial divide confirmed the inherent problems with their thinking when the announcement was made: the white privileged types who bemoaned another cadre deployment […]
Posted inHealth, News/Politics
Relax, you’re not going to die of Ebola
Quite a number of things are killing South Africans at the moment. High salt diets. Farm attacks. Tuberculosis. Cardiovascular diseases. Giant rats on the loose in Alexandra. Viagra-induced heart attacks. Oscar … The list is endless. What’s not really a threat to most people, however, is Ebola. Take this from a self-confessed germaphobe like myself […]
Posted inBusiness, General, News/Politics
Is it time to nationalise the Reserve Bank?
Every time the Monetary Policy Committee announces interest rate cuts, unions and some sectors of the population immediately jump up calling for the “nationalisation” of the Reserve Bank. One wonders if they do actually have a point. The recent appointment of Lesetja Kganyago as the Reserve Bank governor-designate has re-ignited the debate. During my studies […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Listen to immigrant stories
By Anthea Paelo An Eyewitness News’ headline caught my eye the other day, “Zim home affairs call deportations ‘inhumane’”. Being a foreign national myself, I’m drawn to news articles like this but with the careless disregard of a person confident of their legal status in the country. This changed one weekend last month. It was […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The strange case of the disappearing president
President Jacob Zuma is South Africa’s invisible man. The person elected to lead the nation is slowly fading away like Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat, until eventually, one assumes, only the grin will remain. Like many a politician before him who found the heat in the local kitchen too much to endure, Zuma has become a […]
Posted inNews/Politics
If you think you’re white, liberate yourself now
In case you were not aware, the white nation is dead in South Africa. It does not exist, not anymore. In fact, there has not been a time in over three centuries when so-called white people have been so on the defensive and their superiority complex shattered. After all, the only thing that made most […]