Minister Ntshavheni, is BEE of national interest or ANC patronage networks’ interest?
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni recently defended South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy against the United States’ criticism. The Minister was responding to questions regarding how South Africa intends to overcome its diplomatic impasse with the United States.
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Pillay’s prize: monumental victory for law, human rights and rules-based order
At 85 years old, the eminent South African jurist represents the absolute pinnacle of legal integrity – a career forged in the crucible of the anti-apartheid struggle and elevated to the highest chambers of international justice. From defending anti-apartheid freedom
Pillay, peace and the prize
Navanethem “Navi” Pillay was at a conference in Courtroom 600 of Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice when it was announced that she had won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. The 85-year-old South African jurist told reporters that the last thing she
News Focus: UCT and free speech
A recommendation that Advocate Mark Oppenheimer be expelled from the Council of the University of Cape Town for remarks made last year in an interview with prominent international commentator Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and that fellow council member and CEO of
Navi Pillay's Nobel Prize and the question of impartiality
Navi Pillay's contribution to international justice deserves recognition. But the Nobel Committee's praise for her independence invites closer examination of the UN commission she chaired.
Sociology and science: why optimism can fall short
Many social scientists believe that what we become is entirely a result of the social causes, of things our families and societies do to and for us. They think we could package and use that kind of thing to make
It wasn’t me, your honour, it was my genome …
The following is a courtroom drama inspired by Garth Zietsman’s diagnosis of the civilizational problem of “genetic load”. Dramatis Personae (With a nod of acknowledgment to Joel Mervis’s long gone but incomparable satire, The Passing Show) Judge President: Q C
Strangers at our door
Noah is working on the rights of refugees. They can, he tells me, also be termed asylum seekers. Why? I ask him, but he is non-committal. Suspiciously so, I think. I surmise that the boy is seeking refuge from me.
News Focus: AgriSA’s firm endorsement of property rights “particularly welcome”
AgriSA's “unequivocal endorsement of property rights as the foundation of South Africa's agricultural economy” at its 2026 Congress this week “is particularly welcome given the poor record of organised agriculture in defending the property rights of all farmers”. So says