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The appointment of a new chief justice, the ongoing Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe saga and a number of high-profile court cases may have dominated the legal headlines in recent weeks, but a dispute over a key-ring has served notice of things to come in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup. Fifa is […]

Samuel Johnson argued that “he who voluntarily continues ignorant is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces”. As someone who hungers for as much information about as many things possible, I have a particular disgust for ignorance, particularly wilful ignorance. Like Vittorio, I too fear ignorance more than I fear death. However, even more […]

In my previous post, I wrote about the rather paradoxical nature of autonomy — that “complete” autonomy is impossible, given everything around one that one unavoidably depends on, or has to take as a basis for exercising one’s “autonomy” — language, for example, as well as other conventions so that, in the end, the best […]

The recent appointment of Bheki Cele as police commissioner has once again brought the persistently high levels of crime to the fore. Despite some substantial improvements, SAPS are struggling to get a handle on the crime situation. As has become par for the course, Cele has publicly adopted an aggressive approach to crime including his […]

Last weekend I made my customary annual road trip up north to Zambia through Zimbabwe. Starting off at the crack of dawn, it was a glorious drive on the N1 during that time of early morning when the breaking light of a new day slowly takes over a landscape wrapped in the fading darkness. With […]

I’ve just read Alan Boesak’s recently published “reflections” on the anti-apartheid struggle and the challenges that continue to confront us as a society. While he reflects some interesting perspectives on the nature of the struggle, the resolution of the political conflict and the character of post-apartheid South Africa, it seems to me that the esteemed […]

In the current atmosphere of heightened demand for service delivery and leadership accountability, we desperately need leaders with serious ubuntu credentials to lead us out of service delivery protests and regular strikes. This can only be effectively done by visible delivery on promises made and meeting expectations. But many of us cannot tell the difference […]

KwaZulu-Natal always leads the pack. With the economic recession, the province has the dubious distinction of playing host to not only the most job losses in the country, the most non-functioning traffic lights, the most street name changes and in a bid to not to be outdone, we also applied to play host to the […]

You know that numinous, uncomfortable feeling you get when you sense that something is very wrong? It kind of ties a knot in your belly just below your breastbone and sometimes even hurts at your temples and between your shoulder blades. Your brows involuntarily furrow and your eyes widen as your pulse quickens. And what’s […]

Had it not been for the 13-or-so million lives involved, one could almost feel sorry for Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe. It seems the old man has had it with foreign donors only getting off their wallets for NGOs active in his country, rather than having the cash mainlined fresh into Zimbabwe’s porous state coffers. Lest […]

Wathint’abafazi, wathint’imbokodo! (Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock.) This phrase has come to represent women’s courage and strength. Women’s Day is commemorated in South Africa on August 9 in memory of the women who marched in 1956 to protest against apartheid and has become a symbol of women’s resistance to […]