

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.
- Total Post (111)
- Comments (20)
Articles By This Author

Not always all it seems
- By Michael Morris
- . May 2, 2021
I often think the four most important words in any rational conversation are the ones least likely to be heard. The pressure to be right,

A broken promise
- By Michael Morris
- . Apr 26, 2021
It is guaranteed that tomorrow’s likely sentimental hoopla will fall far short of acknowledging that Freedom Day has become an increasingly ironic milestone of South

Souring the dream: SA’s schooling failure
- By Michael Morris
- . Apr 11, 2021
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has calculated that giving every child access to education and the skills needed to participate fully in

It does not need to be like this
- By Michael Morris
- . Apr 4, 2021
A year ago, as we entered the second week of the hard lockdown that heralded a year of difficulty, anger, fear, risk and mounting insecurity,

Listening, learning and a lost opportunity
- By Michael Morris
- . Mar 21, 2021
It is doubtful that Adam Habib has done himself any favours by departing from his spirited defence of intellectual dispassion at the start of the

A contemptible insult
- By Michael Morris
- . Mar 7, 2021
In the very week in which the Institute of Race Relations delivered a memorandum to the Presidency warning the government about the costs of abusing

Longing for a country that is better than it has ever been
- By Michael Morris
- . Feb 21, 2021
I have written before about interviewing Rashaad Fataar under a solitary avocado tree in a swathe of scrubby grass on the periphery of central Cape

Land reform: there is a better way
- By Michael Morris
- . Feb 14, 2021
There is little point in handing out land and ending up with assets that are dying in the hands of the poor. Well, detractors might

Remembering the future: state vs people
- By Michael Morris
- . Feb 7, 2021
‘Liberation’-era South Africa has reached its ‘apartheid’ moment in what is turning out to be something of a climax in the government’s now three-year drive

The Tyefu incident: a symbol of national error
- By Michael Morris
- . Jan 31, 2021
In the satellite image, Tyefu police station looks as remote and undistinguished as an abandoned farmstead, a modest block and a few outbuildings beside a