Posted inNews/Politics

A lesson in political brinkmanship

President Jacob Zuma’s biggest strength is simply that most of us, including embattled ANC Youth League President Julius Malema, underestimate him. We look so much at his blunders and gaffes that we forget that he has in fact been a leader in the ANC for decades and has vast experience in that regard. We also […]

Posted inNews/Politics

South Africa needs a new national myth

I’ve been talking to a lot of people lately. The young tech entrepreneurs and artists I met at Culture Shift. The 40-something filmmaker, writer and consultant I first encountered at an idea orgy (where ideas mate to produce new ideas). The marketing guru inspired by the potential for technology to inspire new social movements. The […]

Posted inNews/Politics

Mbeki’s big blunder: apartheid reparations

By Isaac Mangena When tabling the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report in Parliament on April 2003, former president Thabo Mbeki lashed out at victims of apartheid brutality who were seeking reparations against multinational companies, most of which are based in the United States. “We consider it completely unacceptable that matters that are central to the […]

Posted inGeneral

Will the new Thabo Mbeki please speak up?

Former president Thabo Mbeki is creeping back into the intellectual spotlight. His pronouncement on the issue of knowledge production at the University of Stellenbosch Business School’s Knowledge Management Conference recently has generated much heat and light. His utterances have, rightly, put a critical spotlight on the role of academia and business in not only generating […]

Posted inNews/Politics

Dreams From Mangaung

For every occasion, there is an instance so poignant only the willfully blind and the intentionally deaf can miss it. Such moments tend to happen outside and in spite of the rehearsed and the orchestrated. They can be dramatic or surreal. In the FIFA World Cup of 2006, such a definitive moment occurred in the […]