Articles By This Author

The mask slips: why you use the jackboot

Opinions

I’m sure I’m not the only one worrying about the company Bheki Cele keeps. Some don’t have much choice, but all are at risk. It’s

ANC’s truth or consequences: aren’t we devils?

Opinions

Seldom before has a South African administration confronted so pressing a challenge to lead the country boldly towards a genuinely fresh and hopeful start, based

Race and the ANC: indifference and contempt

Opinions

I have never been convinced by the argument that contemporary race-based measures intended to empower and affirm black South Africans amount to ‘apartheid in reverse’,

Dangers that loom when a state reaches its limits

Opinions

Two things this week brought home to South Africans the potential reach of the state in defining the condition of national life – the government’s

Is the ANC losing its grip on the crisis?

Opinions

Sensible South Africans were dumbstruck on Friday by the news that a leading mining executive had been hauled before a court and made to pay

The crisis, and the recovery: what we can count on

Opinions

Policymakers in South Africa should be made to frame a 125-word passage from near the end of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s televised address on Friday evening

Where have all the people gone?

Opinions

I have found myself thinking about Alex this week, though I haven’t seen him for years. In the early 2000s, he was a familiar feature

Testing times – the lockdown, and after

Opinions

The next three weeks will likely prove to be something of a litmus test of the legitimacy of state authority in South Africa. For obvious

China syndrome: Covid-19 and the penalty of unfreedom

Opinions

‘Everyone please be careful.’ These words, expressed only 11 weeks ago by a man who is now dead, have been freighted in the short time

Cracks reveal the delusion of the ANC’s ‘radical’ mission

Opinions

Justice Minister Ronald Lamola may yet rue the confidence with which he recently laid claim to Radical Economic Transformation (RET) as the core programme of