In news just in, SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng has announced that the SABC will be abandoning weather “forecasts”, reverting instead to more reliable weather “backcasts”. “We have found weather backcasts to be more accurate,” said Motsoeneng, “removing frivolous speculation and uncertainty. We know the DA wants to bring bad weather back into the country, and […]
SABC
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Corporate leaders destroyed by their own greed
It’s been a bad run for caring capitalism. An unvarnished display this week was the monstrous rapaciousness unleashed when captains of industry lack any sense of social responsibility or personal morality. First there was business boy wonder Martin Shkreli’s inadvertent self-immolation, metaphorically speaking. Then there was the slow motion crash of Volkswagen, the world’s second […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Politically savvy teens don’t need no education
Many sniggered at activist Julius Malema’s underwhelming matriculation results. But that much-derided F he got for woodwork proved to be no impediment in his stellar rise to multi-millionaire status by his mid-twenties. Alas for young Julius, the tax man has since bankrupted him and corruption charges make the future murky. However, the lesson is clear: […]
Posted inMedia
Age of Truth…revolution betrayed?
Many hip-hop fans from the current generation may not know much about Prophets of da City (POC). Largely credited by academics for getting Cape Afrikaans hip-hop off the ground and paving the way for Spaza rappers, POC also put their heads on a block for their political principles … literally. The banned video “Understand Where […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Jacob who? Mandela takes refuge in the fog of age
For me, the iconic photograph of George W Bush was of the American president reading to a bunch of kindergarten kids. It was conceived as standard pre-election pap, a photo opportunity to show the caring side of the nation’s most powerful man. But as it happened the date was September 11, 2001 and the picture […]
Posted inNews/Politics
SABC bored, what about Honey Boo Boo?
South Africans, faced with rampant inflation and severe austerity measures, are once again bemoaning their fate, threatening emigration and promising politicians that there will be bedlam at the next elections instead of concentrating on producing those things that make this country great. What? Take a step back and answer this question: When the Americans ran […]
Posted inGeneral
Ben Ngubane and Piekniek by Dingaan
Ben Ngubane – till recently the chairperson of the perpetually dysfunctional SABC board – was appointed as the first minister of arts, culture, science and technology after the historic 1994 elections. It was a euphoric time for the arts sector. The right to freedom of creative expression was guaranteed in the interim Constitution. Apartheid’s censorship […]
Posted inBusiness
Commercial news media, like the SABC, also answer to his master’s voice
Everyone’s favourite whipping boy, the SABC, has done it again. Unspoken commands from the outside have barged in and, at the last minute, dictated an editorial policy. Either both the Metro FM show’s producer and host neglected to acquaint themselves with the said policy, or the policy did not exist until five minutes before the […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Nothing unusual about SABC…er, censorship
Since the ANC took political power and governance from white minority rule 18 years ago, the SABC has been a highly contested terrain. What I have noticed is that the wise guys in the so-called private-owned media and their networks have the same predictable attitude to attack its integrity at every opportunity, even for the […]
Posted inGeneral
Regulation of the porn industry is not a free speech issue
Late last year, South Africa’s journalists and assorted media types decked themselves out in black to protest the Protection of State Information Bill. Shortly thereafter the news sites started buzzing with proposals to introduce a porn channel to our TV sets. And very shortly after that, various organisations threatened to boycott the channels concerned and […]
Posted inMedia
New! Improved! The nation, on sale now
In 30 seconds, an ad can tell you more about the South African psyche than an entire day spent wading through a dissertation. A contentious statement to make, I know, but with the Loerie Awards festival taking place this weekend (I’ll be blogging it all here), worth some reflection. The significance of advertising’s role in […]
Posted inMedia
What is the fascination with Riaan Cruywagen?
As I type, Riaan Cruywagen is one of the top ten trending topics on Twitter in South Africa. He’s climbing fast, and will probably soon overtake Gareth Cliff, #BlackParentsQuotes and #SteveBiko (Twitterville isn’t completely shallow you know). It’s all because he stars in this ad for this weekend’s Loerie Awards*, conceptualised by Loeries CEO Andrew […]