If you want to know why ANC policy won’t change dramatically whoever wins in Polokwane, take a look at the front page of one of our daily business newspapers on Tuesday morning, which features a photo of Jacob Zuma, Tokyo Sexwale and Zwelinzima Vavi at a meeting at Wits University. All three are laughing and […]
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Posted inLifestyle
A dream deferred by the spawn of the devil
I am posting this from Malaysia, after a 10-hour trip. Economy class. Don’t judge me. The Johannesburg-to-Singapore leg of the trip has managed to reaffirm my belief in the existence of the devil. I have always held the view that the devil is a real phenomenon and that, in all likelihood, he has managed to […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Cut or uncut?
Call it religious chauvinism, or perhaps just good taste, but I’ve always preferred cut. Granted, I lost my foreskin more than 40 years ago, presumably at a catered function where I cried (as did my mother) and everyone else chased mouthfuls of chopped liver with cola tonic and lemonade. Since then, I have not spent […]
Posted inGeneral
Violence in South Africa: A psychoanalytical perspective
Violence and crime are ubiquitous in South Africa today. Nevertheless, few of the many discussion programmes or media commentaries succeed in providing an illuminating perspective on it. By contrast, Johann Rossouw’s use of the three structuring societal spheres — the religious, political and economic — that occupy different positions of dominance and subordination in different […]
Posted inLifestyle
Colouring outside the lines
Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike. — Theodore Roosevelt The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved. — Mother Teresa Recently, I was privileged to fly into Cape Town on a pristinely beautiful summer’s day. As we were […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Rape and the African Peer-Review Mechanism
I know the African Peer-Review Mechanism Country Report is not everyone’s idea of a good read. So let me point you to the interesting bit. It comes right at the end, on page 376 of the copy that was sent to me in the post. The report cites the rape statistics from the South African […]
Posted inLifestyle
Township survival guide for non-blacks
A few weeks ago I posted a piece called “Single white male” from which much controversy arose. I was accused of all manner of racially biased crimes and being a typical black South African who feels entitlement to everything and never wants to work for anything or add any value. I was called all manner […]
Posted inLifestyle
Dear Mr Mandela, or should that be ‘Persondela’?
Dear Mr Mandela While everyone is mesmerised, shocked or thoroughly disgusted by the preliminary rounds of the Thabo vs Jacob punch-up in Polokwane, I know that you are probably deeply disturbed by the unseemly and puerile nature of this egoistic contretemps. I feel it my duty at this painful time for you to try to […]
Posted inGeneral
Somizi can play with my jewels any day
Did you hear about the case of indecent assault opened against dancer, choreographer, singer and actor Somizi Mhlongo? This is the type of story with “Silwane Files material” written all over it. The article reports that Somizi’s accuser approached him to ask for an autograph and Somizi “played” with the accuser’s private parts during this […]
Posted inMedia
Fired for blogging
So history has been made. Llewellyn Kriel has been fired from the Sowetan for his writings in his Thought Leader blog. At a hearing held at Avusa (Johncom) on Thursday afternoon, November 29, his contract of employment was formally terminated. While this was not unexpected, the first firing of a South African journalist for what […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Danish cartoon II: A teddy bear named Muhammad
Gillian Gibbons is an Englishwoman who teaches at Unity School in Sudan. On Sunday, the Sudanese police arrested her on account of blasphemy arising out of her allowing her class to name a teddy bear “Muhammad”. This has caused a furore of note, with many, including the Muslim Council of Britain, saying that it is […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Aids denialist Brink’s loony letter to Mbeki
Here is the previously unknown text of a loony letter that the Aids denialist Anthony Brink asked me to deliver to Thabo Mbeki a mere three days after he introduced himself to me in a Cape Town book shop. The letter is so very obviously bonkers that I, of course, never gave it to the […]