Thought Leader

I am currently in the United States as a 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow; President Obama’s initiative for emerging young African leaders. I have spent six weeks at Virginia Commonwealth University; learning and gaining valuable skills and I am excited to return to South Africa even more determined and inspired. We are currently in Washington and…

Barack Obama is in Havana tonight. What a sentence. From here in the belly of the beast, surrounded by the army, the army reserve, the navy, the air force, the marines, the coast guard, the national guard, nuclear warheads, stealth bombers, aircraft carriers, attack helicopters, the CIA, the FBI, Homeland Security, the National Security Administration,…

By Stephen Buchanan-Clarke President Obama’s visit to Kenya as the first sitting US president will likely be remembered most for the strong stand he voiced on the issue of LGBTI rights on the continent. Standing alongside Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta at a joint press conference on Saturday, Obama unreservedly stated his belief “in the principle…

By Perry Munzwembiri After years of “Obama-mania”, following President Barack Obama’s brilliance on the campaign trail, the 2016 White House race just needed something that would add the “X-factor” to the campaign. At first, it seemed Donald Trump brought the “Y-factor” — as in — why is he even running for president? Every day, however,…

By Rob Turrell I listened to Barack Obama’s speech about Nelson Mandela at FNB Stadium last Tuesday week in awe. I had read his tribute on Mandela’s death and I wondered if he would repeat it or give a new speech. He gave a new speech. I was amazed. I’ll tell you why. Rhetorically speaking…

Even though an American is four times more likely to be killed by lightning, there’s no greater bogeyman in the Anglo-American body politic than the homicidal terrorist. It beggars belief that something so statistically insignificant (it has been suggested that the odds of death at the hands of a jihadist, or the like, is one-in-20…

The timing of United States President Barack Obama’s two-day state visit to South Africa was less than ideal. Overshadowing the political arena was a looming, distracting historical backdrop: former president Nelson Mandela’s faltering but determined struggle to live. Both leaders were acutely aware that they had to avoid any perception of insensitivity to the prevailing…

By Sipho Singiswa It may be hard for many to gracefully accept or admit, as has been an African tradition, that when Madiba has decided he is ready to go meet his ancestors or when they call him, only he will know when best to go. I am writing in response to all the liberal…

There I sat, five hours after leaving home, sunburned and wind chapped. I was hungry and thirsty and had spoken about engineering and women’s rights and weddings and which city in South Africa was the best. I had travelled thousands of kilometres the day before, and despite the anticipated excitement, at that moment I just…

One always knew, as with the averred statistical likelihood of a million chimpanzees with a million keyboards in a million years eventually producing the equivalent of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, that it had to happen. Now after a lifetime of effort, former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has at last said something intelligent. Palin, who has…