Walk the talk. Chat is cheap, money buys whisky. Meer bek as binnegoed. Don’t tell me — show me. These are threadbare cliches. And deservedly so because it is a helluva lot easier and cosier and neater and ultimately innocent to fill the good air with carbon dioxide through rhetoric and oratory than it is […]
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Posted inLifestyle
Reflections on a diplomatic tête-à-tête
Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting our former ambassador to Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Vatican, Her Excellency Konji Sebati, who was due to fly out later in the afternoon to assume her position as our new French ambassador. Her Excellency is a medical doctor who grew up in Soweto and worked for the Pfizer […]
Posted inNews/Politics
SA: A nation in a good state?
On Friday, President Kgalema Motlanthe walked the red carpet to open the nation’s legislature. As he shuffled past dignitaries and diplomats, one could almost hear the jingle of keys in his pocket. The president is little more than a caretaker in a blue overall we are told. He is caught between Thabo Mbeki, who left […]
Posted inLifestyle
Stop crime by saying hello
In the mood for a little distraction to start off your week? Take a look at Stop Crime Say Hello — a local organisation built on the premise that if South Africans said hello to each other more and treated each other better at work and in life, the amount of violent crime would drop. […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Zuma laudable but he must step down now
Jacob Zuma’s confirmation that the ANC has leaders who can step in if he is convicted and that he won’t be using the presidency to quash the charges against him is of course commendable but doesn’t alter the fact that he should step down now. The country and the party should not be fielding a […]
Posted inGeneral
How to stay in publishing in a digital world
As more and more of our world is digitised — sales, maps, encyclopaedias, books, music, phone calls, radio, TV, you name it, it travels digitally — companies constantly have to choose what to automate and what has to be done by human beings. In other words, what can be templated, and what requires project-specific creative […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Hlophe, Motata: Who are we to judge?
Professor Pierre de Vos, who teaches constitutional law at the University of the Western Cape, gave his thoughts in his not-to-be-missed blog Constitutionally Speaking on submissions by Judge President John Hlophe’s lawyers. They suggested the treatment meted out to their client, as opposed to that of the judges of the Constitutional Court, was inconsistent. In […]
Posted inGeneral
Catholic Church goes retrograde
Religion is not something I usually write about, mainly because I don’t want to offend anybody. It is after all everybody’s choice as to how they nurture their soul. But the Catholic Church’s latest political manoeuvres have gotten to me. Religion is one of those things many people can’t decide, or at least I can’t, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
As good as it gets?
For an apology, at least one issued by a senior politician, it’s not half bad. None of the “misquoted” or “quoted out of context” nonsense we have become accustomed to being dished. Instead, in a carefully worded statement, Fatima Hajaig, the deputy minister of foreign affairs, has gone some way in undoing the damage caused […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Not everybody should be allowed to vote
Election fever is starting to grip the nation as it does round about this time, every 5 years. This is when that bunch of pretty uninspiring and overfed chair-breakers suddenly remember who made their obesity possible. As is the case around this time, there’s a lot of debate about who should be allowed to vote. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
ANC deliberately uses intimidation for electioneering purposes
The ANC’s election strategy and tactics have assumed striking similarities to those adopted by Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF prior to the controversial March 29 elections last year. Zanu-PF used fear and political violence to demoralise and make it difficult for the MDC to challenge their political hegemony. That the ANC is desperate is an open secret […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zimbabwe is Thereisenstadt, intensify sanctions but increase aid.
One of the greatest deceptions of World War II was the concentration camp established at Terezin (renamed Thereisenstadt by the Germans) near Prague in then Czechoslovakia. Though the Nazis gave it a pleasant looking facade, in order to fool the Red Cross, diplomats and world media, it was nothing more or less than a collection […]