Apart from being stone-cold forthright, Herman Mashaba also has a reputation for being very, very stubborn and harbouring the type of views that verge on the extreme: Condemning rapists and murderers to the noose; mass deportations visited on undocumented foreign nationals; a hardline military presence at our “porous borders” and South Africans who do not …
In the wake of the Thabo Bester saga pundits have waxed lyrical on, inter alia, a corrupt security cluster as well as the inherent poisoned chalice of roping in the private sector to do government bidding. But for many South Africans, these tended to eschew the next everyday and uncomplicated footfall that is – even …
Following the results of the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) federal conference in 2020, I published an opinion piece on City Press that began thus: “It is now history that Mbali Ntuli’s Rhodes University degree could not prevail over John Steenhuisen’s matric certificate for the position of DA federal leader. This…the same party whose political yarn is spun around merit – …
This is eParkeni’s very first commission. Needless to say, we’re chuffed, if not taken aback! To offset these turbulent economic times, sane people tend to tread cautiously around their finances. Heeding expert counsel, they put money away in banks, investment portfolios, sometimes – when they’re sure nobody’s watching – even stash it inside furniture. Can’t …
Colesberg, March 20. It’s early morning and Julius Malema casts a shadow apparently long enough to spook an entire town out of sleep. A rare but distinct noise reverberates through Kuyasa Township. Booming baritones, thundering feet, clarion whistling, it could only mean one thing: a toi-toi! The numbers are initially paltry, the singing barely loud …
Thanks to a teething but hyped-about subgenre of music blandly known as Amapiano it dawned on me recently just how ignorant I’ve been. How artistically the world has progressed and I’ve seemingly remained behind; an outdated relic who missed the bus into this flagrant new age. All these decades music had occupied the more endearing …
Friday, 17 March. Hardly three months into the year 2023 of our Lord and The Rainbow Nation stands at the cusp of some profound events. Not to rub it in, as is the job description of any writer and journalist worth his salt, but that is simply the nature of the beast; to report on …
President Reshuffles, Premier Delivers SOPA and Red Monday Looms Large. Read More »
If there is a sacrosanct dictum that is religiously drummed at food-and-wine-pairings it’s that, unlike relationships, in cuisine and grog, opposites seldom turn out to be a match made in heaven. In fact the opposite applies, namely; species of a plumage – or in wine speak, cultivar – tend to hit it off like a …
Bordeaux, 1989; Colesberg’s Must-visit Restaurants Read More »
Go around a certain small town in Mpumalanga and you are likely to encounter residents who refer to it as eMkhondo whilst others will say it is Piet Retief. Down to a man, however, there will be unanimous agreement that one Pretty Yende is probably the best thing to have ever come from there. A …
The Sensational Pretty Yende and The Would-Be Superstars Read More »
On the best of days for tech illiterates, interacting with computers is, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, embarrassingly awkward. All some of us are certain of around a desktop is that when you double-click, something opens. “And the *##&$# thing,” an octogenarian friend of mine has been known to obscenely vent, “sometimes doesn’t even …
