My God, is it just me or is this crushing, pervasive near-religious rugby fervour downright depressing? I know, it’s just me. I don’t get sport. I mean, I get why people play it. Out there on the field in the sun. Breathe in some fresh air, kick a ball around, whack one with a racquet […]
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Posted inGeneral
Real men don’t watch sport
My God, is it just me or is this crushing, pervasive near-religious rugby fervour downright depressing? I know, it’s just me. I don’t get sport. I mean, I get why people play it. Out there on the field in the sun. Breathe in some fresh air, kick a ball around, whack one with a racquet […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Does tribal history affect national destiny?
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t believe contemporary politics is about tribalism. The current division is not amaXhosa Mbeki-ites vs amaZulu Zuma-ites. Ethnic differences barely count in the contemporary clashes over succession. But, still, there is something about the history of the amaXhosa that just conceivably has a bearing on the way things are. The […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Whatever happened to ideology?
Back in the struggle days, delineations were political. The regime stood for racism; the white opposition for deracialised capitalism. There were the black consciousness people, the non-racial ANC, the workerists in the unions, and the commies who believed in delaying socialist revolution for a national democratic one. Politics was easy to explain. But it’s been […]
Posted inNews/Politics
‘South Africa’s going the way of Zimbabwe’
I’m consistently amazed — no, make that, concerned — at the amount of seemingly intelligent people who still hold this opinion. It’s easy to write off the usual suspects for comments like this, but when people in their 30s with professional careers in high-powered positions make a comment like this around dinner tables, it beggars […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Dear Mr Mbeki: You have been well and truly Bush-whacked
Dear Mr Mbeki You will have noticed, I am sure, that when you dismissed Mr Zuma from his post as deputy pres of our country, I did not presume to give you any advice. Nor did I join the ranks of that phalanx of cheeky buggers who insisted on telling you what to do when […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Who do YOU want to be the next president?
In my book I have a chapter entitled “Let the masses eat pap” in which I publicly declare my voting record since 1994 when FW de Lincoln said people with my melanin content could. My rationale for revealing this great secret was based on two observations: 1. Figuring out that a black male who grew […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
‘Unauthorised’ Mbeki doccie screened
The “unauthorised” documentary about South African president Thabo Mbeki has finally been screened on the SABC, after more than a year of to-ing and fro-ing.
Posted inNews/Politics
Jacob’s ladder
Regular readers will know that I believe the president will be regarded by history as one of our finest leaders. I’ve dealt with this in a number of previous articles that you can source elsewhere on this blog. While I disagree with many of Mbeki’s (ANC) policies and his approach to certain issues (as set […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
You didn’t get this from me …
Al Neuharth, the founder of USA Today, the United States’s largest newspaper, once remarked that “anonymous sources are the root of all evil in journalism”. That may have been an overstatement, but not by much. In many cases, journalists can’t do their jobs without using anonymous sources; often, however, they are simply an excuse for […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Mbeki: Constitutional crisis or leadership crisis?
Before I begin, may I just say that over my bank manager’s dead body will I be fielding questions on this one. Good luck to you, sir. With the president’s return from the UN, the issue of the director of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Vusi Pikoli’s departure — allegedly for obtaining a warrant against […]
Posted inGeneral
National interest versus public interest
Writing in “A decade of democracy“, published by the finance weekly Financial Mail, President Thabo Mbeki says: “Those who tell the story of the past decade must show they have assimilated the spirit of new times and can speak in its language.” For me, at least for the purposes of this blog, I will misinterpret […]