Behold, the end of the world is nigh! The barbarians have breached the gates! Extremists are redrawing maps without the superpowers! Journalists’ heads are rolling — and not only at Independent Newspapers! Jihadists now speak with English accents! Oh, and Juju’s in the house. And he’s not playing nice. Civilisation as we know it is […]
Nkandla
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Nzimande’s ‘white people’s lies’ shows anti-black prejudice
By Aidan Prinsloo Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande had said the Nkandla furore was the result of “white people’s lies”. Many were quick to point out how he was scapegoating white South Africans for his president’s own shortcomings, and some noted that Thuli Madonsela is hardly pale. But I think we have […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
A ‘good story’ to tell – for some
I must admit, the ANC’s election moniker (you know, that it has a “good story” to tell) makes me very angry – probably much more than it should. In the wake of Nelson Mandela’s death, and the feeling that we’ll never again experience such collective unity or progress as a nation, the ANC’s election spin […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Majority still support ANC
The majority will, again, vote for the ANC in the forthcoming elections. It is unavoidable as that seems to be the only party of choice that will gain more than 61% of votes, according to a voter poll. The C-Voter poll says 70% of citizens think the ANC will win at the polls on May […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
An EFF beret, Nkandla and Freedom Day
I have mixed feelings about Freedom Day. A sense of relief is mixed with a sense of frustration. Optimism is muddled with ineffable loss of something different, something a little better than what we have now. I think Nomboniso Gasa said it far better than I on Facebook yesterday: Freedom, I think, is never complete. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Zuma’s gilded battlements besieged by the public protector
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s long delayed report into the expenditure of at least R246-million of taxpayer money on President Jacob Zuma’s rural home at Nkandla is undoubtedly the non-fiction must-read of the year. And equally, were they to be collected into a single volume, the tripartite alliance’s attack dogs’ ongoing attempts at discrediting the report […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Help the ANC, vote for an opposition party
We are about to celebrate Human Rights Day, a day that reminds us of the Sharpeville slaughter, a day that commits us as a country “never again” to repeat such an atrocity. Precisely for this reason, the Marikana massacre will render our Human Rights Day hollow until those responsible — who pulled the triggers, who […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Paramilitary posturing doesn’t bode well for a peaceful election
The sparring between poseurs in the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the ANC as to who has sole naming rights to a silly red beret is more than a Tweedledee and Tweedledum spat. It’s a warning that the coming general election might be uncharacteristically volatile. A small portent was the Nkandla fracas last weekend, when […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The A to Z of things we cannot blame on apartheid
At Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, President Jacob Zuma made the point that “he (Mandela) told us that the promises of democracy would not be met overnight … and we all agreed with him … ”. Was this a co-option of Madiba somehow to justify the slow pace of service delivery? While it is true that […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The men and women who make SA great, sort of
To mark the passage of 2013, some annual awards to the men and women who make South Africa great. Or at least jaw-droppingly memorable. The Xenophobia Award goes to the SA Police Service for reminding us that it is still possible to be too black. The son of former Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni was […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Rural Eastern Cape aka home of legends
I recently travelled through a stretch of the Eastern Cape that used to be officially known as the Transkei. One might refer to areas such as Ngcobo, Ngqamakwe, Ugie, Elliot, Maclear, Cala, Idutywa, Gcuwa as small towns but this is a very generous definition for places that resemble “out stations” to the surrounding villages. While […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Bribery, the real costs
By Anthea Paelo The other day the taxi I was riding in was stopped by a policeman. Not an unusual event in itself. Neither was the exchange of money that happened afterwards. What was strange, at least for me, was the policeman’s method of request. Upon stopping the taxi, he did not bother to pretend […]