
Michael Morris
IRR head of media Michael Morris was a newspaper journalist from 1979 to 2017, covering, among other things, the international campaign against apartheid, from London, and, as a political correspondent in Cape Town, South Africa’s transition to democracy. He has written three books, the last being Apartheid, An Illustrated History, and has an MA in Creative Writing from UCT. He writes a fortnightly column in Business Day.
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Articles By This Author

To see liberty thrive
- By Michael Morris
- . Oct 2, 2023
I suspect the main reason why liberalism is so much stronger and more enduring than the fiercer (and all too often indistinguishable) ideologies to its

Mistaking the ‘Malema’ risk: a reply to Martin van Staden
- By Michael Morris
- . Aug 16, 2023
This is really a reflection on the virtue of being less than wholly convincing, or convinced, and thus avoiding the penalty of bringing the argument

A worrying obstacle on the road to post-ANC recovery
- By Michael Morris
- . Sep 21, 2022
South Africans who have the most to offer are the very ones the country is most likely to lose to emigration, according to new research.

Trekking on
- By Michael Morris
- . Jul 10, 2022
The older I get the more I am persuaded that the best reason for monuments is being reminded just how wrong we so often are

Jonathan Jansen deserves credit for his courage in speaking up
- By Michael Morris
- . May 1, 2022
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba’s grossly misdirected attack on Jonathan Jansen earlier this month (“Foreign nationals: The new F-word that needs proper discourse,” 10 April) over

The deepest delusion
- By Michael Morris
- . Nov 28, 2021
Few recent statements have more clearly illuminated the crippling delusion at the heart of the ANC’s political project than former President Thabo Mbeki’s characterisation of

The most liberating agency
- By Michael Morris
- . Nov 21, 2021
‘We never said a word about the fact that I have no arms.’ Felix Klieser In a world so often dominated by the self-pitying and

Who could do it today?
- By Michael Morris
- . Nov 14, 2021
The furious disagreement over how we should remember F W de Klerk arguably draws more attention to the political dynamics of South Africa today than

Building a compelling alternative
- By Michael Morris
- . Nov 7, 2021
I can’t recall ever seeing the term ‘hyper-local parties’ before this week, and perhaps that’s because local politics in South Africa has never been quite

Settling for powerlessness
- By Michael Morris
- . Oct 31, 2021
The sentiments and the solidarity may be genuine enough, but if that’s as far as it goes, it’s not nearly enough. I wrote these words