As originally written for Feint and Margin:
It’s been a spicy few weeks for media freedom in South Africa. From the arrest of Wa Afrika, to the hearings on the Protection of Information Bill, as well as the Media Appeals Tribunal being supported by all manner of cadres – it cannot be said that there hasn’t […]
Filed under: Africa, Commentary, Liberalism, Media, Media Freedom, Politics, Society by Andrew la Grange
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South Africa’s freedom to know what those, who we have entrusted with the powers of the State (namely the ANC) are doing, with our common property, is under siege. The ANC, which should be simply a caretaker of the government, has misunderstood its place in relation to the state, and the role it should play […]
Filed under: Africa, Commentary, Corruption, Government, Ideas, Journalism, Liberalism, Media, Media Freedom, Politics, Rant, Society by Andrew la Grange
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Can you guess that I wrote the title of this post before Bafana’s 3-0 drubbing by Uruguay? While the result was disappointing, I have to say that I remain very proud of our boys. Few countries with a national team that is going through a rough patch like ours, have had to suffer the indignity […]
Filed under: Africa, Commentary, Corruption, Economy, Government, Ideas, Malema, Philosophy, Politics, Reconciliation, Society, World Cup, Zuma by Andrew la Grange
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In 1856 a young Xhosa girl made a prophecy. That prophecy resulted in the famine and destruction of a great people. By encouraging the Xhosa people to destroy their crops and livestock she set her entire people back for decades. Over 25 000 died from starvation. Hundreds of thousands of head of cattle were killed. […]
Filed under: Africa, Commentary, Government, History, Ideas, Malema, Politics, Society, Zimbabwe, Zuma by Andrew la Grange
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I’ve been out of Cape Town since mid-January, spending a few weeks in one of the world’s true Capital cities – London.
I’m so conflicted when I am in the London. It is such an incredible melting pot, a morass of people and cultures, languages and behaviours. And yet despite its many different people it […]
Filed under: Africa, Cape Town, Commentary, Ideas, Rant, Society by Andrew la Grange
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In case you believe that the whole country is going to hell in a hand basket, and national enterprise is destined for absolute failure, think about the South African Post Office.
I can’t speak for its profitability, but then again the U.S. Mail is a loss leader for that country, and the UK’s service is […]
Filed under: Africa, Business, Economy, Government, Language by Andrew la Grange
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Increasingly I am making links between the ANC of today, and the NP of the past. In the coming weeks I am going to be writing a series of articles on the present nature of the ANC and how the transformation of South Africa since Freedom has mirrored the transformation of the ANC.
The core […]
Filed under: Africa, Commentary, Decision Theory, Government, Ideas, Law, Philosophy, Politics, Reconciliation, Society by Andrew la Grange
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It seems we, the people of South Africa, lack an emotion. We lack it to such a degree that the absence of it in our hearts is distilled and purified in the halls of our nations power, the Union Buildings, the Parliament, the party National Committee and the halls of academia. We lack shame. We […]
Filed under: Africa, Commentary, Corruption, Crime, Decision Theory, Diplomacy, Government, Ideas, Obama, Politics, Zimbabwe, Zuma, ethics by Andrew la Grange
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Luke Watson, and his father, are controversial figures in South African rugby, a sport which is plagued with racist and intra white (i.e. English Vs. Afrikaans) destructive attitudes. But it is also a great bridge builder, as the Great reconciler, Nelson Mandela showed brilliantly in 1995.
South Africans, of all races, are proud of South […]
Filed under: Africa, Commentary, Ideas, Language, Politics, Rant, Society, Sport, ethics by Andrew la Grange
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Trevor Manuel and others are leaving the cabinet. The rand has fallen sharply against the dollar initially on the news.
From Business Day:
Statement on the resignation of members of Cabinet and Deputy Ministers
President Thabo Mbeki has, to date, received letters of resignation from the following members of Cabinet which, regretfully, he has had to accept:
1. […]
Filed under: Africa, Economy, Politics, Society, Zuma by Andrew la Grange
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PK will no doubt fight with me on this, but I think I might just have called it (probably my best one since I said the West should be concerned about Arab Extremism , on MFM 92.6 on the 10th of September 2001) regarding the next President (Has Motlanthe used Zuma as a Sleeper? : […]
Filed under: Africa, Commentary, Corruption, Decision Theory, Diplomacy, Language, Philosophy, Politics, Society, Zuma by Andrew la Grange
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Sian and I were at the SANG (South African National Gallery for those who never did Art at high school) this weekend, getting a good dose of culture, after walking around in the Gardens.
I’ll keep my rant on why museums and galleries funded by taxpayers money should be open to the public for free for […]
Filed under: Africa, Art, Cape Town, Commentary, Corruption, Design, Education, Media, Society, Zuma by Andrew la Grange
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Friday was a blow to anyone who wants South Africa to be a powerful and healthy democracy. Not because the courts found on Zuma’s behalf on a technicality, but that so many of his sycophants seem to think that Justice Nicholson’s ruling was a vindication of their man.
The fact is that the man who was […]
Filed under: Africa, Corruption, Crime, Ideas, Law, Philosophy, Politics, Rant, Society, Zuma, ethics by Andrew la Grange
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YeboYethu, Vodacom’s payoff (well only 3.44%: bribes come cheap these days) to BEE, shows just how cheap it has become to pay off white guilt in South Africa (even for a company that likes to give all its employees kids Lego, and take everyone out to the Velodrome for a command performance from Westlife, as […]
Filed under: Africa, BEE, Commentary, Corruption, Economy, Ideas, Media, Politics, Rant, Society, Zuma, ethics by Andrew la Grange
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http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=nw20080626114212346C109992
Helen Zille wants to debate Jacob Zuma in a public debate, a-la U.S. elections.
I don’t think she is going to get her wish, Zuma, and the ANC sees debate outside the ANC as anathema. To debate outside the party is to acknowledge that ideas of value can exist outside of the party, and that […]
Filed under: Africa, Business, Commentary, Decision Theory, Politics, Society, Zuma by Andrew la Grange
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