President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet Oversight visit last month to the Northern Cape may have come across as a rehash of established setbacks from two years ago. Forgive us if this smacks of resentful criticism from one with an axe to grind against the 7th administration, and instead revisit the nostalgia of issues raised at his …
Ramaphosa visits the Northern Cape and life goes on Read More »
One cat who’s never sulked over most of it is Hugh Masekela. Never clutched at the usual excuses or milked the tropes to make a hero or, for that matter, a victim of himself. No matter how the news anchor tried to spin the narrative or harangue him into another moping soliloquy around the godforsaken …
Four years ago this week SA was burning, the state apparatus caught so unawares that our nation’s finest could only haplessly look on as businesses were looted, torched and some 354 people lost their lives in the bedlam. Bheki Cele, the cowboyish Minister who’d popularized the buddy cop ‘shoot to kill’ was seemingly out of …
If you thought Donald J Trump is the big kahuna, you obviously have been paying scant attention to his former geeky sidekick. Elon Musk, the cantankerous brainiac, MAGA benefactor, and once-celebrated other half of Washington’s most famous bromance has – since the much-publicised first visit with his son to the Oval Office – left the …
Where at eParkeni we tend to find ourselves ambling on the ordinary side of things, today we’re constantly looking over our shoulder. That’s the price to pay when you’ve overstepped the line. Strayed into the underbelly. In a trap house among drug pipes, penknives, addicts, – the proverbial wrong crowd, the unnerving side. Where the …
The Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Nobuhle Nkabane would’ve been utterly tone-deaf if she expected her proposed 2025/26 budget vote to pass without at least several parties registering their dissenting ‘nay’ this Tuesday (1 June) before the National Council of Provinces. Earlier that day, the Democratic Alliance (DA) had ‘opened a criminal case against …
Minister Nkabane in hot water as SETA graft continues Read More »
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent firing of Andrew Whitfield suggests a veiled personal acknowledgement that time may not be on his side if he wishes to effectively carry out the in-house mandate placed on him by the CR17s eight years ago. Furthermore, the sacking of said Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry might indicate that the …
Ultimatums, U-turns and the search for David in the GNU Read More »
A satirical piece by the late Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina entitled How to Write about Africa and a recent one by the award-winning South African expat and author Sisonke Msimang, How to Write About Palestine, inspired my two-bit attempt. On the best of days, any foray into political writing is a challenging layup to slamdunk, …
Once a firebrand in the ANC Youth League, an untouchable co-founder in the EFF, to being unceremoniously demoted from Secretary General of the MK party and snubbed from its parliamentary list just 10 months since joining, the life and times of Floyd Shivambu tell the story of a political modus operandi manned by authoritarians, gatekeeping …
In the hullabaloo that the GNU’s first anniversary has stirred, it is perhaps Cyril Ramaphosa’s proposed National Dialogue – dubbed another useless talk shop – that has overshadowed the moment. His silver tongue not notwithstanding, the endeavour has been met with overwhelming apathy and nothing to suggest any fireworks when it has bedded down to …
