Posted inEnvironmentGeneral

Who’s responsible?

Let’s assume that the first Europeans to land at South Africa arrived in the year 1497, or between the year 1497 and the year 1502. That’s Vasco da Gama’s expedition from Portugal. They arrived to find local South Africans. That is people who were already inhabitants of present-day South Africa. Let us consider that for […]

Posted inNews/Politics

The weakness of the ANC

The current elective conference of the ANC makes me think, involuntarily, of the decline of this once-proud, 105-year old organisation, to the point where it has been too weak to do the obvious thing, namely to ‘recall’ (their chosen euphemism for discharge, or fire) their current (and soon-to-be-replaced) president, Jacob Zuma. The funny thing, which […]

Posted inGeneral

In Tambo they trust

This year we have heard from the great and the good about comrade OR Tambo, the late leader of the ANC – who led the ANC for many years, in exile. Some having served alongside Tambo, have sought to embellish their own credentials by passing themselves off as more authentic exemplars of Tamboism. Some having […]

Posted inNews/Politics

The ANC has a leadership problem

Despite its parliamentary majority, 2014 was a year of reckoning for the ANC. Seemingly no longer in command of Parliament or public opinion, it emerged from the election bruised but not defeated. However, its performance lacks the swaggering bravado we have come to expect – it knows it has been wounded. Whether it can staunch […]