The ambit of every person’s personal liberty should be expanded to include the freedom to decide on the timing of their death
Desmond Tutu
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Remembering Tutu: To forgive is not to forget, and memory can heal
As we bid farewell to the older generation that brought us political freedoms, we must never forget where we come from as a society
Posted inEnvironment
Use this Youth International Day to recognise South Africa’s young climate leaders
They are among many other youths in the world who oppose burning fossil fuels and are promoting a just green transition
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
A birthday card for the Arch
Dear Archbishop Emeritus, Happy birthday! May October 7, the day of your 82nd birthday, be filled with joy. You are very special to many of us, and we are blessed to celebrate 82 years of your presence among us. This is a very short story of why you are special to me, and why I […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
The trouble with liberals
The word liberal traces its history back to the Latin liber, which means “free”. Author and founding member of the Liberal Party in South Africa, Alan Paton, described this body of thought as such: “By liberalism I don’t mean the creed of any party or any century. I mean a generosity of spirit, a tolerance […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Mandela – what lies beneath?
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 […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
The Dalai Lama saga: Episode 2
Concerning the small matter of the second failed attempt by the Dalai Lama to get a visa into South Africa in as many years, let us begin by giving the South African government the benefit of the doubt. Notice how I have carefully constructed the preceding sentence along the lines suggested and hinted at by […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Winds of change for the ANC
The winds of change have finally started blowing for the ANC government, just as they started blowing for the National Party government in 1960. In 1960, this event was formally announced by former British prime minister Harold Macmillan in his famous address in Cape Town on February 3 that year. In this Year of our […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Let the Lama Skype in!
When Arch Desmond Tutu’s BFF received a big fat “NOT YES” from the South African government, the Arch took the (in)decision rather personally. Fortunately for our Tutu, we South Africans, having a flair for dramatic tendencies, dichotomised and moralised the issue into good vs evil, with the country’s integrity and pearly gate invite hanging in […]
Posted inGeneral
Mandela and the Dalai Lama
So damaging was the fall-out over South Africa’s denying the Dalai Lama a visa when he wished to attend a peace conference a couple of years ago that it was hard to imagine such a blunder being repeated. At the time, it was perhaps the most egregious example of the last administration’s penchant for shloeping […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Dalai Lama’s visa delay shows up SA leaders’ moral bankruptcy
It was wonderful to see those two old pals and rogues, Archbishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama in a photo on the front page of the Mail & Guardian online, September 27. Excited, I thought they had met up in South Africa. Alas, it was an old picture and the story made it clear that […]