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
The testing measure of merit
A common objection to the argument for merit – in the job market, business, the public service, the selection of sports teams, entrance to university
Your team is ready and waiting, Cyril
Long into the afternoon, hours after the final whistle blew in Yokohama on Saturday, there were still intermittent bursts of delirious hooting on the freeway
Not our native consciousness
Some of the most vacuous comments about liberalism are also the most demeaning – to black South Africans. The surest sign of flagging faith in
This is the question we must ask ourselves
When will we cease to be Africans, coloureds, Indians and whites and merely be South Africans? These words are not mine – which, all these
For crying out loud
South Africans have a sound grasp of what matters, and what must be done – but our politicians just won’t listen. The real South African
A more than native tongue
As Heritage Day approaches and we cast around for tokens of South African essences, the youngest of Africa’s indigenous languages – despite the recent remarks
Pandor’s unwitting concession
Blaming apartheid for South Africa’s ‘toxic mix of socio-economic challenges’ – as the origin of continuing sporadic bouts of xenophobic violence – is really an
When black lives don’t matter
The government’s racial nationalism is laid shockingly bare in its 19th Commission of Employment Equity annual report. Every bit as shocking is the nodding endorsement
It’s the majority, Mr President, who are alienated
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s comments in parliament suggest he misperceives where the real alienation, resentment and despair in our society reside, and why. One of the
Why freedom matters to the poor
Liberal ideas really do offer the hope of emancipation from poverty. It says a lot for people’s sense of what the good society is that