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.
Articles By This Author
When tyranny announces itself in advance
It’s very likely that everyone is heartily sick and tired, now, of the debate about crimes against humanity – but that’s all the more reason
A necessary argument about history
History is often mistakenly thought to be only about the past. But the arguments of the past week over apartheid’s being declared a crime against
The flaw in the fable
Nelson Mandela has, fittingly, been recalled to public consciousness this week in the various statements and events marking the 30th anniversary of his release in
Where the real problem lies
Every other day you can expect to find a commentator, an activist or a politician confidently asserting that what South Africa needs most and hasn’t
Can South Africa defy the abyss again?
A few days short of 30 years ago, South Africa turned back from the brink. I remember it well. In the cool dawn of Friday
Fostering the suburban dream
Rashly, admittedly, I once suggested to a bemused colleague that if she wanted to live in a leafy suburb she could begin by planting trees.
The costs of our endless wrestling
Just over two years ago, I began an article with a fragment from a 1973 Philip Larkin poem, a sketch from another time, as I
Our sick obsession
Fifty-three years ago, liberal MP Helen Suzman railed against the latest amendment of apartheid’s keystone law, the Population Registration Act, warning John Vorster’s government that
A sense of goodwill
Travelling to Bloemfontein this week, we stopped to fill up with petrol in Beaufort West, the half-way halt longed-for by the children for whom even
When will SA wake up?
We keep being told South Africa is a ticking time bomb of pent-up fury, but somnolence might be our greater challenge. Not that we are