The sweet, insidious ideology of “cakism” | Nicholas Lorimer
In another episode of Writers’ Room Reads, Nicholas Lorimer reads his article, ‘I Love Democracy’, on the politics of no trade-offs. Read his article here:
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What Denel and Armscor carefully left unsaid
On Friday, 9 October 2026, the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans received the Annual Report presentations of Denel SOC Ltd and Armscor SOC Ltd as part of the Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report (BRRR) process. What emerged was
Wearing a loud shirt to a funeral
‘If it’s sunny in Prague, it’s like wearing a loud shirt to a funeral.’
Some political parties are already secretly playing games with us
From: Manny de Freitas Johannesburg There has been much attention about political parties who submitted only 1 name of the proportional representative (PR) list for municipalities for the November local government elections. It’s interesting how some parties are using a
Demagogues vs journalists
Makone Maja and Nicholas Lorimer discuss the public clash between News24 journalists and Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma. They also discuss Jacob Zuma’s health and the potential implications for the future of the MK Party. https://youtu.be/naY-x9yPKMA
You can’t defend liberalism with tribalism
There is an increasingly prevalent view among some within the broad South African liberal community that liberalism needs more elements of identity politics, group focus, and collectivism; that liberalism needs a tribe. Part of the underlying appeal is the view
The Pretoria agreement is dead. South Africa cannot look away
Four years ago, in a conference room at the DIRCO building in Pretoria, Ethiopian and Tigrayan negotiators signed the deal that ended one of the deadliest wars, not only of this decade, but of the last half-century. South Africa hosted
Mathipa hit: shaking the democratic state to its core
There’s a saying among my fellow military veterans that if a guy in a bar tells you that he was a Recce, one of South Africa’s famed Special Forces reconnaissance soldiers – he wasn’t. That’s because despite their fearsome reputation
Leopards and the cost of coexistence
I am delighted that leopards still occur around my thirteen hectares on the West Rand. But one settling there and killing my dogs would soon exhaust my enthusiasm. I don't find that difficult to admit. Most people become rather less